Originally the books of 1st and 2nd
Samuel were one volume. When the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament
was made [the Septuagint] they were added with 1st and 2nd Kings and
were called ‘The books of the kingdoms’. In order to keep this volume from
becoming too big, they were divided into the present divisions. In chapter one
we see the family of Elkanah and Hannah [and wife #2 Pininnah!]. They go up to
the Tabernacle of the Lord in Shiloh to worship the true God. Hannah has no
children while wife # 2 does. This becomes a point of contention and jealousy
between the two wives. Hannah pours her heart out to the Lord and makes a vow.
She tells the Lord if he gives her a son that she will dedicate him to the
Lord. Eli the priest sees Hannah praying silently [her lips moving but hearing
no voice] and he assumes she’s drunk! Why? Was she stumbling and acting drunk?
No. It was because he thought she was mumbling [speech] like a drunk. In Acts
chapter 2 the same thing is assumed. Those who received the outpouring of the
Spirit were thought to be drunk. Why? Were they stumbling and falling? No, once
again it was a speech thing. They were speaking all types of unknown languages
[known to the various groups there that day] and people thought they were
acting like drunks when they can’t talk clearly. I emphasized this because it’s
common today for renewal movements to associate the Spirit with people actually
stumbling and driving in a drunken type state. While I don’t want to be
dogmatic and say this can never be of God, yet many of these believers will use
the Acts chapter 2 example to justify their belief. Act’s 2 does not teach
‘being drunk in the Spirit’ in this manner. Now the Lord hears Hannah’s request
and she gives birth to Samuel. She keeps him until he is weaned [2 or 3 years
old] and then she honors her vow and dedicates him to the Lord. She actually
gave him up to become a full servant of God at Shiloh. It was not an easy vow
to keep. As we go thru this book we will cover lots of interesting history.
Samuel will become a mighty prophetic leader in Israel. He will be the one to
introduce king Saul as Israel’s first king. The last verse in Judges says
‘there was no king in the land in those days, every man did what he thought was
right in his own eyes’. It’s common to think this means God punished Israel for
not having a human king. In actuality God will tell Israel that they were
rejecting his kingship over them by wanting a ‘king like the other nations’. We
will learn that God did not originally intend for Israel to have a singular
human king. The description from judges simply shows us that sinful people, who
reject God’s law, will go astray. In these instances a king can bring some sort
of stability and government. The kings of Israel will serve in this capacity.

(884)SAMUEL 2- Hannah gives great
praise to God for Samuel. This prophetic utterance is a lot like Mary’s
‘Magnificat’ in Luke chapter one. She says ‘God brings low the rich and helps
the poor’. This week we had one of the worst financial disasters in U.S.
history [9-2008]. It could have been worse, the government took over some major
financial [and insurance] institutions. One of them was A.I.G., a major insurer.
A day or so before they were taken over I asked my wife ‘did you take out the
girls trust money’. We had a lot of money for our girls in the company [lets
say between 50 and 100 thousand dollars]. My wife says ‘no, not yet’. I was a
little perturbed to say the least. My wife is the trustee for the girl’s
accounts, and I have been telling her for about a year to take the money out.
So the day she makes the request all the talk on the financial shows is ‘will
A.I.G. declare bankruptcy today’? I was upset. Another day went by and they
said ‘overnight they will declare’. And we still didn’t get the money. Well the
government stepped and basically took the company over and we got our checks. I
was talking to my homeless buddies and they were somewhat aware of the crisis,
but they could care less. Their lives were not tied up in these systems. They
were still going to live the way they were living for most of their lives.
Trusting God daily to meet their needs. It made me think of Hannah’s prayer.
Also we see the first use of the word ‘Messiah’ [anointed] in the bible. ‘God
will strengthen his king and exalt the horn of his anointed’. I read this
yesterday and was quoting it all day. It’s appropriate that Mary uses this
prophetic utterance while speaking of Jesus, the Messiah. The sons of Eli the
priest are wicked. They are robbing the people and sleeping with the women at
the tabernacle gate. Scripture says ‘the people abhorred the offering of the
Lord’ because of their abuse. For many years I heard ‘if people are offended
because the church emphasizes money so much, well let them be offended’. I
never really questioned this reasoning. Then I began to see how the majority
offence to unbelieving friends and family was the money issue. While most of
the pastors were well meaning, they seemed to not realize that we do have a
responsibility to not offend in the area of offerings. The apostle Paul
adjusted his ministry in such a way that he would not allow the churches to
support him while he was with them. [Not just Corinth either, but Thessalonica and Ephesus! Read
Thessalonians and the chapter in Acts that deals with the Ephesian elders- 22?]
The point being the church bears much responsibility to how the world views us
in the area of offerings to God. Eli's sons abused the system to their own
benefit and the people began to despise the whole concept of ‘church and
money’. A prophet will pronounce judgment on Eli’s household and Samuel will
‘grow in favor with God and men’. Just like Jesus. Samuel is a type of Christ who
knew his prophetic/priestly destiny from a young age. Jesus was in the Temple questioning the
leaders at the age of 12, Samuel was serving the Lord at an even younger age.

(885)SAMUEL 3- Samuel is laying
down at night and hears someone call him ‘Samuel’. He thinks it’s the voice of
a man [Eli] and he goes to him and says ‘what’s up, why did you call me’? Eli
tells him he didn’t call him. This happens 3 times and finally Eli realizes
that the Lord is speaking to Samuel [though Samuel doesn’t realize it!]. Eli
tells Samuel to simply reply ‘speak Lord, for thy servant heareth’. Sure enough
the Lord returns and reveals to Samuel that he is going to judge Eli’s house
and dynasty. Eli asks ‘what did the Lord tell you’? And Samuel tells it all. A
few things. First, it’s possible for gifted young prophetic people to mistake
men’s leadership for God. In Samuels’s case the Lord purposely bypassed human
leadership. Even leadership that was God ordained to a degree! When we become
over dependant on human leadership God will shake up the apple cart. Also Eli
was still mature enough to direct Samuel towards the Lord. He knew it was not
his job to mediate this gift. He could have been jealous and said ‘well, I
guess you need to ignore the voice. After all who do you think you are trying
to hear God while bypassing the official channels’. But Eli directed Samuel to
the Lord. Also this chapter says ‘God let none of Samuels words fall to the
ground’ all the people from Dan to Beer-Sheba knew that Samuel was a prophet. I
have said in the past that true ministry does not seek fame and recognition.
This does not mean that these things won’t happen! Often times God will elevate
a prophetic gift while the person themselves are not seeking it. Jesus was a
great example of this. He said in John’s gospel ‘I don’t seek the recognition
from men, I know what’s in man’. What was in man? The same people who were
extolling him would be part of the crowd who would yell ‘crucify him’ later on.
The vanity of men’s glory is a shameful thing. Yet Jesus became the ‘most
famous’ prophet in the history of the world. Samuel had a divine mission to
accomplish, he was well recognized as a prophet sent from God for a particular
season. Even Eli [the recognized official leadership] saw something special with
Samuel, he was humble enough not to stand in the way.

(886)SAMUEL 4- DOES TRUE SCIENCE
BACK UP BIBLICAL CREATIONISM? The reason I stuck this in here is because this
chapter deals with the Ark of the Covenant [the box that ‘contained God’ or his
ten commandments!]. I want to deal with the biblical revelation of Gods
character and how it relates to
creation. Do you remember the Indiana Jones movies? The Raiders of the Lost Ark. They showed a view
of the Ark of the covenant as God being this super energy/light force that if
‘unleashed’ would completely decimate everything around it. Sort of like an
Atomic bomb. The biblical account of creation is that in the beginning [of time
and all matter and everything else, except God] that all you had was this self existent
all powerful being who is Spirit [not matter]. And that by a singular act of
speaking he created all matter and everything else in our universe. This
concept was rejected by philosophers and scientists for over 2 thousand years.
Even Saint Thomas Aquinas, the premiere apologist of the Catholic Church,
believed that the universe always existed. He chose to defend God from the idea
of ‘prime mover’. That is God is the initiator of all motion. He accepted the
basic belief that the universe always existed. So you had the biblical world
view, as seen in those who said ‘all matter and existence came into being at a
point in history where God [this being of infinite energy and light] spoke and
unleashed his creative power’. The majority scientific view was ‘this is
impossible’. The 20th century will go down in history as the century
that made the most breakthroughs in scientific thought up until the present
time. Michael Faraday [the 19th century] would unlock certain keys
that would become the groundwork for Einstein’s breakthrough in Physics. Up
until that time all science treated energy and matter as separate fields.
Faraday discovered that light itself was a beam of energy. He discovered
Electro Magnetism. Einstein had an obsession with light as a little boy. He
wanted to know what it was, how it functioned. Einstein’s famous theory E= MC 2
combined energy and matter in a way that was revolutionary to the scientific
world. For the first time science would view energy and matter as co related
fields. What worked in one field was true for the other. His theory stands for
‘Energy = Matter times the square of the speed of light’ C represents the speed
of light- 670 million miles per hour! Einstein unlocked a tremendous secret
that was hidden to the world of science up until his day. He showed that time
itself is relative. Until that time Newton’s
view was if you could actually travel at the speed of light and ‘catch up’ to
the end of a beam of light, that it would still be moving away from you at the
speed of light. Einstein believed this didn’t make sense. But the laws of
physics up until his time did not leave room for a reasonable explanation. His
breakthrough idea was that if you could actually catch up to the speed of
light, you would theoretically be at a point where time stood still. These
concepts seemed ridiculous before. The only place where you would find such
silly ideas as ‘time being no more’ or as ‘all matter came into existence by
this supreme light force’ were in the ancient biblical texts. So true science
was getting closer to biblical revelation, not the other way around. Now
Einstein’s theory meant that if you not only caught up to the speed of light,
but actually surpassed it, what would happen? The energy used to surpass the
speed of light would turn into density, matter. So you would actually be able
to get matter [Hebrews 11] from ‘things that are not seen’ [immaterial]. This
theory also meant that if you could unleash the potential energy from matter,
you would be unleashing one of the greatest forces known to man. The Atom Bomb.
Einstein’s theory has been measured and been proven to be true. As hard as it
is to wrap your mind around, studies have shown that things do not age as fast
when traveling at high rates of speed for extended periods of time. Einstein’s
theory has made possible the belief that all things came into existence at a
specific point in time. This supreme being of light and energy had the
potential to create all the matter in the universe in a matter of seconds. This
‘super fast light being’ also transcends time, a thing thought to have been
impossible in the past. Einstein enabled man to come closer to the ‘stuff of
God’ more than at any other time in history. One other thing, Einstein’s
theories break down right at the point of ‘singularity’. The exact moment of
creation. Hey, God isn’t going to let you see it all without having some faith!
NOTE- I am not advocating Pantheism here [the belief that the universe and the
creation itself are actually God]. Light and energy [power] and ‘Logos’ [The
Greek word for ‘Word’] are all descriptions of God, that he himself uses to
reveal himself to finite man. But because he is the creator of light and energy
and all things, he is revealed to man by his creation. But God himself is a personal
self existent being. In his revelation of himself thru Jesus Christ he also
exists in a bodily resurrected state at the right hand of the majesty on high.

(887)SAMUEL 4 CONTINUED- Okay,
let’s finish it up. In this chapter we see an important historical event, the
capture of the Ark of the Covenant [the box that held the 10 commandments, not
Noah’s Ark!] The children of Israel fight with the Philistines and take a loss
of 4 thousand men. They go back to camp and regroup. They decide to take the
Ark of God and involve it with human warfare. A big mistake! This speaks of the
sad history of the crusades and other mistaken ideas of ‘holy war’. God does
not involve himself in mans efforts of domination thru power. So the
Philistines hear that the Ark is in the battle and they fear. ‘Oh my God, this
is the God of Israel who defeated the Egyptians’. They knew the history of
Israel and how the God of Israel was great. The battle rages and Israel takes a
greater loss of 30 thousand men. Plus the Ark is captured and the two sons of
Eli are killed. The runner runs back to Shiloh [the headquarters of the Ark,
where the tabernacle of Moses still stood] and brings the terrible news to Eli
[the high priest]. Eli hears about the Arks capture and falls back and breaks his
neck and dies. One of the daughters in law to Eli goes into labor and delivers
a boy. She names him Ichabod, which means God's glory has departed. She did
this because the Ark was taken. The Ark represented Gods glory and presence
among the people. It seems as if Israel began to treat it in an idolatrous way.
Sort of like what happened with the brass serpent that Moses made in the
wilderness. God has to step in and rebuke his people when they mistake the true
worship of God with religious objects. The history of the Christian church has
been divided over this for centuries. You can have religious art, it should not
become a thing of worship. The iconoclast controversy of the Catholic and
Orthodox churches have gone to extremes on both sides. At times believers would
go into the ‘churches’ and destroy all the religious art they found. Others
would hold to a view of icons [religious paintings] and statues that would seem
to cross the line in areas of worship. I remember hearing a story about a
prophet who stood up in a church meeting and said ‘thus saith the Lord, I have
judged this church and people. My glory is no longer here. I have written
‘Michelob’ on your door posts’. Well, after he sat down he realized he mistook
the word ‘Michelob [beer]’ for 'Ichabod’. He then stood up again and said ‘Thus
saith the Lord, I meant to say Ichabod’.

(888)SAMUEL 5- The Philistines
take the Ark
back to their cities and every city the Ark
is taken to experiences judgment. They get ‘tumors’ [hemorrhoids!] and rats. At
one point they put the Ark in the ‘house of Dagon’ [a false idol. A fish head
type thing with a human body] and the next morning their idol is found lying at
the feet of the Ark. They set him up again and low and behold, the next morning
the fish god is found at the foot of the Ark with his head and hands chopped
off! Hey, if your god started as a fish and turned into a stump, then it’s time
for a new god! Eventually they decide to send the Ark back to Israel. Let’s do
a little history at this point. The Ark of God is the box that contained the 10
commandments. God had Moses make a box to put the tablets in [the 2 tablets
that the commandments were written on]. The reason destruction will happen to
those who ‘peak in the Ark’ is because the cover of the Ark was called ‘the
Mercy seat’. This was the place where the high priest would make a yearly
atonement [the Day of Atonement] for the sins of the people. The sacrificial
blood was placed on the cover to be for a covering of sin. The Ten Commandments
represented Gods Holy character, and the only way he could dwell with the
people was on the basis of this atoning blood [a type of Christ]. When you
remove the cover [the mercy seat] in essence you are causing the absolute
righteousness of God to come into contact with the absolute sinfulness of man.
That’s why those who peak in it are destroyed. Now the Ark was originally
carried around with the tabernacle system in the wilderness. A sort of movable
tent that was set up and taken down as God willed. A mobile piece of furniture.
When the children of Israel came into the Promised Land it was placed in
Shiloh. After it’s capture and return [which we will read about in the coming
chapters] it will eventually be placed in the city of Jerusalem under King
David’s rule. This tent that David puts it in is referred to as ‘David’s
tabernacle/tent’. It will be a type of the new covenant ministry of Jesus. The
tent of David will have no tabernacle structure like Moses tabernacle in
Shiloh. There will be no veil or holy of holies or any other impediment to
God’s presence. All you have is the Ark and the mercy seat. This showing us
that in Jesus priesthood [typified by David’s kingly/priestly ministry] all you
need is Jesus atonement and Gods glory. All have equal access to God, not just
the priestly class [or another way to put it is all are priests!]. So as we
progress thru these books keep your eyes open to the prophetic pictures that
are being painted by the Spirit. All scripture testifies of Christ. He is the
underlying figure that the Spirit is continually pointing to.

(889)SAMUEL 6- The Philistines
are reeling under the judgment of God. They call a meeting of their priests and
diviners, and they ask what they should do. Their ‘religious’ leaders advise
them to send the Ark
back to Israel
and make an offering. They were to make gold images of their judgments, rats
and tumors, and place them in a box with the Ark and send it on a cart being pulled by
two cows. They would take the cows calves and bring them home, but place the
cows and cart on a road to Beth Shemesh. If the cows go down the road, they
took it as a sign from God. Sure enough the cows take the Ark to Beth Shemesh and dump the cart in a
field belonging to Joshua. Israel
rejoices that the Ark
is back and sacrifices the cattle with the wood from the cart. Their joy is
short lived. They peek in the Ark
and are destroyed. They removed the ‘Mercy seat’ [see last chapter-#888]. Over
fifty thousand men from Beth Shemesh are killed. They decide to send it to the
men of Kirjath Jearim. Over the years I have seen this story used in various
ways to justify different ‘ways of doing church’. Some taught how God judged Israel because
they didn’t follow the prescribed methods of Ark handling. We will see this happen with
David and his men later on. Then the teacher would relate how important it is
for us to follow Gods prescribed method, but then teach ‘Gods method’ is their
various slant on how ‘we should do church’. I see some good stuff from this
story, but I don’t see it in that light. The Philistines were advised by their
own pagan priests ‘don’t harden your hearts like Pharaoh’. The story of Gods
miraculous intervention in Egypt became lore of the day. All the surrounding
nations knew that you don’t mess with the God of Israel. God didn’t destroy the
men of Beth Shemesh because they didn’t fully follow prescribed law [though
later on this will be part of the problem with David’s men] but they died
because they took themselves out from under the covering of Gods mercy as
represented in the Mercy seat [the lid on the Ark]. A few years back a famous
believer, Reggie White [former football pro.] was known for his Christian
faith. He was later influenced by Muslim teaching and made the statement ‘I am
going directly to God, without a ‘go between’ [meaning Christ]’. He obviously
was influenced by Muslim teaching and was coming out from the ‘covering of
Christ’ [mercy seat]. Sadly, Reggie tragically died not too long after this
from a sickness. He died in the prime of his life. I do not want to judge
Reggie. I simply want to show you the danger of sinful men [all of us!] trying
to approach a Holy God without the ‘mercy seat’ [Cross]. The men of Beth
Shemesh removed the covering, and they suffered for it.

(890)SAMUEL 7- The Ark arrives at Abinadab's
house in Kirjath Jearim, it will remain there until David retrieves it [it was
there for around 100 years in total-1100 BC- 1004 BC]. Samuel calls the people
to repentance and makes intercession for them at the same time. This leads to
great victory over the enemy. Jesus ‘lives forever to make continual
intercession for us’. We need to combine repentance and dependence upon
Christ’s mediation in order to gain victory. This chapter also has the famous
name ‘Ebenezer’ that makes it into the history of the church. Both songs and
churches will use it in their names. Martin Luther King preached at Ebenezer
Baptist church. This stone was simply a rock of remembrance for the victory of
God. It spoke of Gods help for man. Jesus is the ultimate ‘stone/rock of defense’
for man. Scripture says ‘there is no rock like the Lord’ ‘Jesus is the precious
stone, all who believe will be delivered’. The imagery of Jesus/God as a rock
of defense is all throughout scripture. We see Samuel as the key leader of
Israel and scripture says he judged them at this time. He lived in Ramah and
‘rode a circuit’ between the various cities on a rotating basis. He was the
first ‘circuit rider’! The circuit riders were the famous American evangelists
during the 19th century. As the Puritan east coast churches were
becoming well established in the original colonies, there was a need to reach
out to the West [and south] with the gospel. The circuit riders were the
evangelists who traveled to various areas preaching the gospel and establishing
churches [The great Methodist Frances Asbury became famous for his circuit
riding and church planting]. During this time you had the famous ‘camp
meetings’ where many believers from all over would gather at these outdoor
‘brush arbors’ and hear the gospel preached and commit their lives to the Lord.
Over time the more staid Reformed churches of the east coast would view the
‘camp meeting’ brothers as a little ‘un hinged’. You would also have some of
the ‘Spirit led’ groups condemn the old time reformed brothers as
‘unconverted’. There was a tendency to lean towards one side or the other. The
various Quaker [shaker] type groups would emphasize the Spirit being premiere
in all Christian understanding. While this is of course true, this in no way
means believers do not learn thru the normal means of study and reading. Some
of the more ‘Spirit minded’ believers would come to view the more ‘head
knowledge’ brothers as ‘unconverted’. One of the worst cases was the Ann
Hutchison controversy. She was a believer who began teaching under the ‘Spirits
guidance’ and would give the impression that the more refined ministers were
not of God. She would ultimately pay with her life for her beliefs. NOTE- The terminology of ‘New lights’ versus
‘Old lights’ was often used to describe the different emphasis between these 2
camps. There was a brother by the name of Davenport who would travel around and
accuse all of the old time preachers as being unconverted. While it is possible
for a minister to have never truly made a strong commitment to Christ, to paint
them all with this broad brush was very unbalanced.

(891)SAMUEL 8- Samuel’s sons are
appointed as judges over Israel
[leaders]. They are wicked, just like the sons of Eli. I find this interesting,
Samuel was a product to some degree of his ‘spiritual elder’. Even though
Samuel himself was a righteous man, yet he passed on to his kids the same
leadership style that he tutored under. The children of Israel come to
him and request a king ‘like the other nations’. It is important to see that
God states clearly that this is not part of ‘the original plan’. God will tell
Samuel that this desire for human leadership, along the lines of other ‘gentile
nations’ is rebellion. Jesus will tell the disciples ‘the gentiles exercise
lordship over one another, it shall not be like this with you’. Israel wanted
to be dominated by a king! God tells Samuel to show them what they are asking
for. And then goes thru a long list of things ‘he will take the best of your
people and use them for self advancement. He will require a tenth of all you
have. He will build a legacy for himself and his name by using you as resources
to attain a personal goal of achievement’. In essence the lord is warning them
that when you raise up human leadership in a singular way [one king] that
violates the plural mindset of scripture, then you inevitably will become a
servant to human institutions and purposes. I find it interesting that the Lord
mentions the tithe and how this will arise as a result of wrong ideas on what leadership
should be. Historically the early church did not practice tithing. As the
centuries rolled along tithing was originally instituted as a ‘tax’ from the
church/state on the people to support the institutional purposes of the
church/state. In essence the tithe/tenth did become a means whereby human
government would obtain power and prestige among the gentile nations. The word
of the Lord was true! [It’s okay for believers to give 10 % to the church on
Sunday, the curse of the law on those who do not do this should not be invoked
from Malachi. The appeal should be based on grace giving]. Israel will get
her king, God will eventually use the Kings of Israel for his prophetic
purposes. David and Solomon will be pictures of Jesus and his future rule. Just
like the temple, God will initially tell David ‘who do you think you are trying
to build a house for me’? [Thru the prophet Nathan] but will still use the
temple as a prophetic type of the people of God being a ‘holy temple’. So the
Lord will allow sinful man to obtain things contrary to his original purpose,
and yet still be glorified thru these requests. Also the sons of Samuel went
astray ‘after lucre’ [verse 3]. Just like Paul and Peters warnings in the New
Testament ‘taking the oversight, not for filthy lucre’ ‘some have strayed from
the faith while coveting money’ so Samuels boys fell to this temptation. I know
it’s popular in today’s circles to simply overlook all these verses from
scripture. Many sincere men do not see them because their ‘grid’ of interpretation
won’t allow it. I just wanted to note how this theme of covetousness is a
scarlet thread that runs thru out the entire body of scripture.

(892)SAMUEL 9- This is a
prophetic chapter that parallels the book of Acts to a degree. Remember when we
did Acts I showed you how it seemed that Paul [Saul] from Benjamin might have
seen some prophetic significance to the fact that he too shared the same name
and heritage [Benjamite] as Israel’s first king? Here we see Samuel play a roll
similar to Ananias [Acts 9] in hearing the lord give instructions concerning
Saul. Both Paul and Saul were told to go into a city and receive instructions.
The lord confirms his word to Samuel that ‘this is the man I told you about’.
Both Ananias and Samuel have prophetic signs that confirm the sovereign choice
of God. Saul in this chapter is seeking for his fathers lost donkeys. They are
about to give up and Saul’s servant says ‘there is a man in the city who hears
from God’. Samuel had a reputation of being a prophet [seer]. Seers [another
word for prophet. There is some distinction between a ‘prophet seer’ and
‘prophet’. But they are basically the same thing in my mind] were able ‘to see’
into the future about things. Samuel is said to be able to ‘tell Saul the
secrets of his heart’. His words ‘come to pass’. He has God communicating to
him in a direct way. Samuel is like Agabus in the book of Acts. A prophet who
experienced God in supernatural ways. Samuel confirms Gods call on Saul’s life
and tells him ‘I have some instructions to give you’ [next chapter!] What role
did Samuel play in Israel? He obviously functioned in a prophetic gift that not
only predicted what would come to pass, but also gave direction and spiritual
oversight to Gods people. The New Testament teaching on prophets clearly
teaches that they are part of the functioning ministry of the church. There
have been many heresies and mistakes and even cultic ‘prophets’. But the basic
teaching in scripture is they are a God ordained ministry that never passed away.
We should approach prophets as we do pastors or teachers or any other gift. Are
they stable in the faith? Do they have a good grasp of scripture? Good
character? All the same principles that apply for Elders. The idea that after
the canon of scripture was complete there were no more apostles or prophets has
no scriptural support [read my section on apostolic, covering, shepherding].
Both church history and scripture support the ongoing role of prophets in the
church. Now, I really doubt that all the fine brothers who declare themselves
as prophets are. Some are learning about the gift. Some are functioning at
various prophetic levels. But the office carries a lot of weight with it. I see
Martin Luther King as a prophetic voice to our nation. He actually spoke of his
death in a prophetic way the night before he was assassinated. There are also
prophetic voices in history who spoke to their nation and people at crucial
times. Alexander Solzenitzen [Russia] would speak out against repressive
regimes. But we need to understand that the basic revelatory element of the
prophetic [to be able to see and know things supernaturally] was included in
the biblical gift of the prophet.

(893)SAMUEL 10- Samuel anoints
Saul with oil. He gives him very specific prophetic direction ‘you will meet 2
men, then 3. They will be carrying 3 loaves of bread and give you 2’. Very
particular information. Saul will meet a company of prophets and prophesy with
them. The scripture says the Lord changed Saul into another man thru this prophetic
experience. Once again we see not only the significance of Israel being under
the divine direction of the prophetic [thru Samuel]. But his prophetic office
also opened the door for a ‘whole company of prophets’ having freedom to
function in their gifts. Over the years I have found it interesting to see how
easy it is to live your entire Christian experience in different camps. Some of
the more refined brothers [Reformed, Orthodox] have a great advantage in the
field of intellectual pursuit [which is a good thing!] but might not be aware
of the sector in the church that deals with the prophetic. The prophetic
ministry has grown and even produced some fine intellectual material [some bad
stuff too!] The point is we need to try and be aware [at least have a working
knowledge] of the many streams that operate in the Body of Christ. You might
not agree with a lot of the doctrinal positions that these various groups hold
to, but as members of Christ’s church they do represent a certain sector of the
church. Saul will follow thru and see all the prophetic signs come to pass in
one day. Samuel instructs him to wait for him to come and publicly recognize
him as king. After 7 days Samuel comes to town and Saul is hiding. He feared
all the things that were coming upon him. Samuel finds him and publicly
recognizes him. Also Samuel told the people that their choice of a human king
was rejection of God. Some of the people are glad about Saul, others despise
him from the start. There is a strange dynamic that I have seen at work over
the years. When individual personalities and goals pit themselves against other
people’s visions, there seems to be a division that is not healthy. I have had
good friends who wanted to publicly join and be identified with ‘my ministry’. I
would simply tell them ‘there really is nothing to join, we are simply
believers trying to live out the Kingdom of God’. Then other pastors would see
that some of the homeless people that they are working with have become
‘joined’ to us in a strong relational way. Then I would sense a kind of mindset
that would say to the homeless person ‘well, if brother John has such good
influence with you, maybe you should be with him instead of us’. They would not
say this in a bad way, just in a way that is prevalent in the present mindset
of ‘doing church’. I see all these divisions as silly, they come from an idea
of local church that has many various ‘local churches’ [Christian ministries]
as seeing themselves as independent entities who are trying to instill loyalty
in people. ‘Are you with us or against us’ type attitudes. In Saul’s case he
had friends and enemies right from the start. When individual personalities and
agendas [which God warned them about!] become preeminent in the minds of the
people [contrary to the corporate comminutes as seen in the local churches in
scripture] then there is a natural tendency to take sides.

(894)SAMUEL 11- Saul will face
his first major test. Nahash the ammonite comes up against Jabesh Gilead, a
fellow tribe in Israel.
He encamps against them and the men of Jabesh say ‘make a deal with us and we
will be your servants’. Nahash says ‘under one condition, all your men need to
have their right eyes poked out’. ‘Oh, is that all’. Sure enough Jabesh says
‘well, let us think about it. Give us seven days respite that we can send
messengers to all the coasts of Israel.
Maybe they will come and help. If not, then sure, we are willing to lose the
eyes’! Now the messengers go to all Israel, and Saul hears the story.
The scripture says he got angry and Gods Spirit came upon him. Saul will
eventually become known for his temper. He will make rash decisions out of
anger and jealousy. I want you to see that part of his anger was actually God
ordained. Sort of like a Jehu [king of Israel] who rode furiously. Or a
John the Baptist who took the Kingdom by force and violence. Saul was initially
scared to become the king, God gave him a degree of righteous fury to be able
to enter the fray without fear. Now Saul sends word back to Jabesh ‘by the time
the sun is hot tomorrow, you will have help’. He takes these oxen and cuts them
in pieces and sends the parts to the rest of the nation ‘whoever doesn’t come
and help. God so help me, I will do this to your oxen too’! [ It would have
sounded better if he said ‘so will I do to you’. But Saul is still kinda new at
the prophetic stuff]. So Israel
rallies, Saul splits the men into 3 groups [did he get this idea from Gideon’s
army?] and they storm Nahash and save Jabesh. A few things. Saul is better at
this king thing then originally thought. The men are so overjoyed that they say
‘hey, who were those guys that rejected Saul the other day? Lets go and slay
them’. Saul steps in and acts righteously and says ‘no, today is a day of great
victory, we will not kill our own men’. Saul had the potential to be a good
king, he will succumb to pride and jealousy down the road. Also the men of
Jabesh were in trouble. They were running out of options. They were
contemplating losing their eyes for heavens sake! ‘Just give up part of your
vision’ was the threat. The enemy often intimidates us because of the
vision/purpose that God places on our lives. If he can just get us to ‘lose the
vision’ and live in bondage [servitude] he will be happy. What did the men of
Jabesh do? They simply bought some time ‘give us 7 days respite and we will see
what we can come up with’. There are times in the journey where we simply need
‘7 days of rest and rethinking’. When you are right up against a seemingly
impossible struggle, it’s hard to see any light. You simply need to be able to
sit back and tell the Lord ‘give me a little season of rest, help me refocus on
some things’. Do a little regrouping and reconnecting to the original purpose.
Don’t think you need to come up with an answer on day One! Often times the
stress and pressure of the initial attack is too much for you to think clearly
on day one. Don’t make major life changing decisions while under stress. After
the 7 days pass, you will be able to review the counsel from the Lord and see if
the situation has improved. Make your decision then.

(895)SAMUEL 12- Samuel is getting
old. He calls the people together and reviews his life before them. His defense
sounds a lot like Paul's defense to the Ephesian elders in the book of Acts
[chapter 20]. Samuel tells the people ‘all the time I have been with you, did I
ever take your goods to enrich myself? Did I use my authority in a way to
advance myself?’ he basically witnesses before the people that he was not in
this for self gain. He also reviews the history of Israel. He reminds them of
their past and how the Lord delivered them from Egypt. It is important to see
that although Samuel was a great prophet who operated in tremendous gifts, yet
he saw the need to also ground the people in history and doctrine. He knew the
importance of remembering past events. Both the Passover and the Lords Table
are Divine instances of ‘remembrance’ that God has ordained for his people.
Samuel will once again rebuke them for rejecting God by choosing a king. He will
call down thunder and rain during their wheat harvest as a sign of Gods anger.
The people see this and fear greatly ‘pray to the Lord for us Samuel, we have
sinned’. He encourages them and tells them ‘even though you have done lots of
wrong stuff, yet it’s not too late to turn to the Lord from this day forward
and make a course correction’. In all reproving and correcting we need to
always leave room for repentance. Some will never change the way ‘they think
and act’ [message bibles version of repentance] but we need to understand that
this is the goal of all correction and judgment. Samuel tells the people he
will ‘not cease praying for them’ and continue to teach them well. Jesus told
Peter ‘if you love me, feed my sheep’. John says ‘this is how we can tell we
love God, when we love his kids and obey his commands’. What is Jesus command?
‘Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and might. And thy
neighbor as thyself’. Samuel realizes that his faithfulness to God is directly
related to his treatment of Gods people. Though he is a gifted prophet, yet he
prays and teaches and remains consistent in the more mundane areas of ‘the
ministry’. I have found that God looks for faithfulness in the mundane things
before he honors the more flagrant gifts. It’s good to have the ability to
speak or prophesy or sing for the Lord, but the need to be a consistent
intercessor for God’s people takes priority. Samuel taught them history. He
oversaw the problems and situations they went thru. He did not become wealthy
from the people. He served the lord faithfully from his youth. Hannah gave him
to the Lord at a very young age, God took what was given and made the most out
of it.

(896)SAMUEL 13- DON’T RETREAT TOO
MUCH! In this chapter we see the famous story of Saul offering a burnt offering
at Gilgal. He was supposed to wait for Samuel and he got impatient and offered
it himself. Samuel tells him that the Lord will judge him severely for this and
raise up a man after his own heart [David]. In the beginning of the chapter we
see Saul and Jonathan separate into 2 camps, Saul keeps 2 thousand men and
Jonathan a thousand. Jonathan is a capable warrior and has some good victories.
The Philistines say ‘enough is enough!’ and mount a counter attack. They muster
so many resources that Israel
fears. They retreat into the rocks and hills, some go back over the Jordan! I read
a recent Christianity today article that had one of the leaders of the Emergent
Movement speaking with one of the more Reformed defenders of the faith. It was
a sincere meeting between two seemingly opposing camps. The Emergent brother
questioned the Reformed guy ‘what did you tell the people about what was taught
in the first thousand years of Christianity before Anselm’? Anselm is the great
Christian theologian who is often credited for ‘coming up’ with the ‘theory of
Penal substitution’. Now, I love church history and do understand that this is
an idea that many good men have espoused, that Anselm came up with the doctrine
of Penal substitution. The point I want to make is this fundamental doctrine
was taught by the first century Apostles. Our scripture is filled with the
doctrine of Penal substitution! So in these cases I think the Emergent brothers
have ‘retreated too much’. In their honest and good efforts of changing the way
the church interacts with society, they have damaged their movement by doing
stuff like this. Challenging too many core beliefs of the faith. In essence
they went ‘all the way back over the Jordan’. The Philistines learn a trick
from Israel and divide up into three groups and send out ‘raiders’ my King
James says ‘spoilers’. They begin chipping away at the confidence of Israel.
Saul has 600 men left with him and they are all trembling. Saul himself must be
in tremendous doubt about his own life. He just received a strong rebuke from
Samuel. He might have been preparing for the worst. But we will find out that
there are still more battles to be won, Jonathan will make his dad proud of
him.

(897)SAMUEL 14- Saul and the
people are hiding in fear, Jonathan tells his armor bearer ‘Lets go up to the
enemy and show ourselves. If they tell us ‘come here’ we will take it as a sign
from the Lord and fight. God can save by many or by few’. They go up and defeat
around 20 men in half an acre of land. The scripture says the enemy trembled
and the earth as well! It seems like the Lord shook things up, literally!
[Another reminder of the book of Acts]. Saul and his people see the enemy
fleeing and can’t figure out what’s happened. He takes a quick roll call and
realizes Jonathan is gone. They figure out what has happened and enter the
fray. The people pursue the enemy and have great victory. Saul says ‘let no man
eat today until the sun goes down’. He begins making community wide decisions
that are harmful to the people. Jonathan doesn’t hear this rash decision and
eats some honey. The people are shocked. They know the curse of Saul. They
finally win the battle and they seek the Lord for further instructions. God is
silent. Saul figures it’s because there is sin in the camp and they find out
that Jonathan was the one who ate the honey. Jonathan says ‘yea, I did eat it,
and now I must die’? Sort of like ‘what a stupid and rash thing for you to have
said! The people were all tired and drained because of following your singular
ideas that were pronounced to the whole community. They would have gained
strength if they simply did what was natural and ate when they were hungry’.
Saul honors his stupid agenda over his own son and says ‘that’s right, you must
die’. He was more willing to kill his son then to admit he was wrong. The people stand up with one voice and say
‘no way Saul, Jonathan has won a great victory. You will not get away with
this’! What happened here? Was Saul so inherently evil that he couldn’t help
himself? I think what we see here is the result of the mistake for Israel to have
wanted a king like the other nations. When the church historically began to be
centered around singular authority figures [monarchial episcopacy] you began to
loose the freedom and health of the people of God to ‘feed themselves when
hungry’. They began to become dependant upon the institutional church to tell
them about God and his truth. Eventually you would have the modern expression
of highly entrepreneurial ministries that would find well meaning Pastors
trying to make corporate wide decisions in ways that were absent from the local
churches in scripture. When the people of God lean too heavily on the gifts and
leadings of one man, there is a tendency for the leader to come up with goals
and decrees that are contrary to the full purpose of God. It is inherent in man
to set goals and make broad decisions. That’s not wrong in itself. But the
people of God in scripture are formed along the lines of a community of people,
not a 501c3 corporation. So the well meaning Pastors have a natural tendency to
say ‘what decisions should I make for the church this year? What goals and
dreams should we put before the people’ and this inevitably leads to entire
communities of believers being too focused on the singular directions of well
meaning men. I think Saul simply came up with things to say because he felt he
needed to exert leadership. God’s people really didn’t need Saul from the
start! As far as I can see from reading the New Testament, the only corporate
‘goal’ or project that Paul would put before the people was his collecting of
money for the poor. Now of course there were many spiritual goals of growth and
becoming mature believers who praise and glorify God. But I don’t see any other
‘project’ that Paul was regularly laying before the people to join. No
structure in the churches of scripture where Paul would say ‘Now Corinth, when
I come back next year lets see 50 house churches, reaching 48 % of this region.
And oh yes, lets raise this much money for this project’. Much of the modern
church is too centered around these types of pleas. The many well meaning men
who are operating out of good intentions for the most part are ‘just doing what
kings [leaders- C.E.O.'s] are supposed to do’. The fundamental flaw is God
never originally intended for his people to be structured along these lines.
Many up and coming believers are seeing this and coming out of these limited
structures. They are telling Saul with one corporate voice ‘you wont get away
with this anymore’. [‘Saul’ in this scenario is not your individual Pastor, who
for the most part is probably a good man who loves God. But ‘Saul’ is speaking
to the whole concept of modern pastoral ministry that is absent from the
churches in scripture].

(898)SAMUEL 15- Samuel instructs
Saul to go and wipe out the Amalekites. He goes and conquers the city but saves
the sheep and oxen and other valuables. Samuel confronts Saul and says ‘you
disobeyed the Lord by not totally destroying everything’. Saul says ‘Well, we
saved the good stuff so we could sacrifice it to the lord’. Samuel tells him
‘to obey is better than sacrifice’. God wanted obedience more than religious
worship. The writer of Hebrews quotes David in the Psalms ‘sacrifice and
offering thou wouldest not, but a Body hast thou prepared me’. Jesus obedience
to the father by dying on a Cross trumped the sacrificial system of the law.
Saul messed up the picture! Samuel calls for king Agag, the Amalekite king who
Saul captured. Agag thinks ‘great, they aren’t going to harm me now. After all
the Pastor wants me’! Well surprise, Samuel takes out his sword and hacks old
Agag in pieces! Saul must of thought ‘Gee, I really messed up this time. I
never even knew the Pastor carried a blade’. A few things. Over the next
century or so [if the Lord tarries] I believe the church is going to go thru a
type of modern reformation. Today we see many well meaning believers
‘sacrificing’ their time and money and lives into a system of church that is
fundamentally disconnected from the picture and nature of church as described
in the New Testament. Now, I am not calling for an iconoclastic tearing down of
all church buildings! But if the American church stopped all new building
programs [finish the ones that are in transit, but no more!] and if we all
began actually, daily giving of our time and resources to helping the poor and
reaching out to the lost. We would need a hundred years at least in order to
bring the balance back to the New Testament [where over 90 % of all giving was
charitable]. Jesus and the disciples practiced a lifestyle where all were
responsible to lay their lives down for the gospel. There are actual commands
in scripture that say ‘you who are not working, get a job so you can have
something to give away to those who are in need’. These are real commands that
should be ‘obeyed’. But what we have taught Gods people is if they work real
hard and sacrifice [as compared to obeying !] then they can put lots of money
in towards the next project or building or whatever. Now some of the resources
being gathered in this way are used for good things, but the underlying problem
is we have given the average saint the impression that this way of sacrificing
is more important than actually obeying. I cant tell you the number of
believers who simply do not see it as their personal responsibility to ‘give to
him that asks of you’ ‘how does Gods love dwell in you if you see a brother in
need and don’t help’ ‘if you do it to the least of these my brethren you do it
to me’. But there is not a single command in all of the New Testament to bring
a tithe for the purpose of building a church facility. Now, it’s okay to build them
to a degree, but are we teaching people that this type of sacrificial giving
[towards the machinery of modern ministry] releases them from the primary
command to obey? The church will go thru a rethinking of what church means, as
we travel along this road we need to obey more than to sacrifice.

(899)SAMUEL 16- Samuel is coming
from the recent ‘hacking incident’ of king Agag, and the Lord tells him to go
to Bethlehem
and anoint a new king. Samuel is afraid ‘what if Saul hears about it? He will
kill me’. Notice, Samuel feels intimidated and fearful. When he gets to Bethlehem the scripture
says the Elders were all in a panic, they said ‘are you come in peace’? Hey,
they just heard about the hacking incident, word spreads fast when a prophet
straps it on with some pagan! They must have been thinking Samuel was on a
warpath. He tells them he is come in peace and wants to sacrifice with them and
worship. As a little aside, when you have prophetic ministers in a city, it’s
only natural that Elders [pastors] are going to feel intimidated. Why? Are
prophets better men? No, but the prophetic operates under a different type of
anointing. Don’t forget you already saw Samuel gain a reputation among the
people because of his strong prophetic gift. Sometimes pastors can feel
intimidated ‘geez, that guy hit the nail on the head. I hope he doesn’t call me
out by name too!’ Samuel doesn’t ‘call them out’ but says ‘hey Elders, where
all in this together. Let’s worship God’. Samuel finds David and anoints him.
Saul is battling with all sorts of personal issues [evil spirit]. Even his
close associates can pick up on it. The servants recommend for Saul to get a
worshipper who can play music and minister to Saul. They tell him ‘yeah, there
is this guy named David. He’s real good at playing music. Plus he is a valiant
and mighty warrior’. We often see David as a ‘mamby pamby mamma’s boy’ at this
stage of his life. But scripture says he already built up a reputation as a
fighter. David takes the job and becomes a musician for Saul. A few thoughts.
In this chapter we see Gods Spirit [anointing] leaving Saul and going with
David. David himself in Psalms pleas with the Lord ‘take not thy Holy Spirit
from me’ after his sin with Bathsheba. Let me encourage some of my Pastor
friends. It’s easy to read stuff like this, or for some ‘prophet’ to pronounce
stuff like this to a pastor. I really don’t see applying this scenario to
modern day ministers. God’s Spirit in the Old Testament was operating
differently than today. Only one king at a time could have the ‘kingly
anointing’. When the Spirit left Saul for David it was because God was only
anointing one person for the job. Today, while it’s possible for a
pastor/minister to mess up and ruin his ministry, I still wouldn’t apply stuff
like this in too much of a personal way. Sort of like ‘The Lord must have left
me and now he’s chosen so and so on the other side of town’. The Lord ‘doesn’t
leave you’ in this way under the New Covenant. Paul said the gifts and callings
of God are without repentance, in context he is speaking of natural Israel, but you
can also apply it to believer’s gifts today. How much God uses you does depend
on your willingness and obedience to his call, but don’t think he left ‘your
church’ and went to the other one down the street! [he hasn’t written
‘Michelob’ on your door! See entry 887]

(900)SAMUEL 17- David goes down
to the battle front and hears Goliath mocking God. The Philistines are
confronting Israel and they have their champion giant [almost 10 feet tall!
Like the Roman emperor Maximus, he was huge] Goliath. David hears the enemy
challenge Israel day after day and he decides to take him on. Saul tells him
‘you can’t do this, you are too young and inexperienced, he is a man of war
from his youth’! David insists that he is able, he killed a lion and bear while
defending his fathers sheep, why not ‘this uncircumcised rascal’! Saul says
‘fine, hears my armor’. David tries it on and realizes it’s not his style of
armor. He goes back to the simplicity of a sling and stone. He goes out to the
battle, Goliath can’t believe his eyes ‘did you send me some mammas boy with a
stick? I am not some dog that you can tame with a stick’! Oh really? David says
‘sir, not only will I win this thing, but I will remove your stinking pagan head
from off that 10 foot frame and feed you and your buddy’s carcasses to the
animals’! Old Saul must of been thinking ‘what in the world did we get
ourselves into’? Sure enough the battle begins and David runs up to the giant
and sinks a stone into his head. He stands over him and severs his head with
his own sword. Now the poor Philistines heard the whole conversation and didn’t
want to hang around for the rest of David’s mission statement to be fulfilled.
They fled! Israel pursues and has a great victory. A few things; David show us
the necessity and simplicity of warfare. Jesus taught the disciples that they
had what it took to carry out the mission. He warned them not to fall for the
wrong headed idea of ‘God has called us to start an organization, and the
organization will accomplish this noble task’. After all the years of
befriending and working with the homeless and down and out. I realize that many
well meaning believers will see the needs of people, but then want to ‘put on
Saul’s armor’ to effect change. Try and start another mission ministry, or make
others aware of the problem. I have found the biggest need to be that people
are simply not willing to actually give their time and substance and get
involved. Jesus told the disciples ‘don’t think you need a lot of extra
equipment for this, you are the equipment. No special appeals for funds!’
[Message bible]. We get lost in trying to put on Saul’s armor [lot’s of
complicated ministry ideas] when Jesus says ‘just use the stone and sling that
I have given you’. The church
of Jesus needs to realize
that the power to effect society is in the hands of simple followers, truly the
meek will inherit the earth.

(901)SAMUEL 18- David is accepted
by Saul and seen as a hero. Upon his victory over the giant all the women begin
praising and worshipping in the streets with tambourines and musical
instruments. Why this exuberant awakening of the women of Israel? It
seems to me that David’s skill as a warrior/worshiper brought a degree of
respect to the ministry of praise and music that might have been lacking up
until this time. Even though the Lord instilled worship as an intricate part of
warfare [Judah=praise],
yet it seems likely that being a musician during a time in Israel’s
history where violence and war were respected might have been seen as a less
than noble pursuit. So David restored a sort of freedom and respectability to
praise. Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, becomes ‘linked’ to David in a strong way.
Some advocates of the gay lifestyle have actually tried to use this scripture
to defend the gay lifestyle, but it seems to simply be saying that Jonathan and
David became best of friends. What might have caused this initial bonding?
Don’t forget Jonathan himself was a warrior who was willing to lay it all on
the line against great odds. He already confronted the enemy single-handedly
and won! It’s possible that during Goliaths 40 days of mocking and tempting
Israel that Jonathan said ‘I’ll do it dad’ and Saul would have never allowed
his own son to face the giant. If so then the victory of David was even sweeter
to Jonathan than the others. David begins receiving praise from the people
because of his wisdom and skill on the battlefield. Jealousy arises in Saul and
he tries to kill David with a spear. This begins the history of Saul trying to
kill David on various occasions and David’s noble responses. Never trying to
hurt Saul himself. Let’s end this chapter with a re-cap of the open type
worship that is happening with the women under David’s ministry. It is much
like the taboo that Jesus broke in the gospels. Jesus ministry was
revolutionary in the way he welcomed and allowed women to be an open part of
his ministry. The other written works of the day did not see women from this
open standpoint. This is one of the proofs used to defend the canonicity of the
scripture. If the stories were all being made up, then you would never include
women in this way. Because it would tend to discourage others from believing
the story! Jesus broke barriers, David’s ministry and rule will be a picture of
the restoration of the dignity and usefulness of women in society. David’s
Psalms were actually the song book of the nation. These songs were written
during the time of David’s ministry in Jerusalem
when the tent of David was the only thing containing the retrieved Ark of the
Covenant. A type of the open access that would come to all people under the
future ministry of Jesus. David was not only a great warrior, he was a
passionate worshipper of his God.

(902)SAMUEL 19- Saul puts out the
word to his men ‘if you see David kill him’! Jonathan tells David ‘go hide in
the field and I will go out where you are and speak on your behalf to my
father. Then I will come and tell you all the words he has spoken’. Jonathan
speaks well to Saul on David’s behalf and David is restored back into the
presence of the king. I see Jesus intercession ministry here. Jesus goes to the
father on our behalf, we ‘rest in a hiding place’ [in Christ] while he speaks
well of us to the father. He ‘gives us the words that the father has given him’
[Johns gospel] and we are restored back into the ‘presence of the king’. But in
David’s case the restoration doesn’t last long. David will flee to Samuel in
Ramah, Saul sends his men to get David. Each time they show up they are
confronted with this prophetic weapon of intercession in the hand of the lead
prophet, Samuel. Samuel is prophesying over a company of prophets and Saul’s
men ‘fall under the Spirit of prophecy’ and prophesy too! This happens with 3
different groups of men until Saul himself comes. The same thing happens with
him. The ministry of prophecy testifies of Christ. The gift itself is a Divine
mechanism in the community of God that protects/defends Gods anointed king
[David/Jesus]. Samuels’s gift was meant for more than just personal
fulfillment, a ‘my ministry’ mentality. He was overseeing a company of prophets
and instilling this dynamic into the broader community of Israel. In the church
today prophets should function along the lines of building into the broader
community for the overall benefit of the church. There have been good men who
have operated in the prophetic gift for many years. They have raised up younger
prophetic ministries under them and have lived very effective prophetic lives
for many years. It is sad that many in the Body of Christ have no idea of this
entire section of the church. Because of abuses and flagrant bad doctrine, many
simply live their entire lives without ever experiencing the prophetic aspect
of Christ’s church. In this story we see the prophetic ministry, under Samuel,
playing a key role in the life of Gods people. NOTE- One example of a modern
day prophetic ministry that has been stable and has launched many young
prophets would be Bishop Bill Hammon out of Florida. He has been around for
years and has had a very influential ministry over the lives of many good young
men.

(904)SAMUEL 20- David is on the
run, he tells Jonathan ‘why is your dad trying to kill me? I have done nothing
wrong!’ Jonathan tells David that he knows nothing about it, it must be a
rumor. David says ‘no, your dad knows you like me, he isn’t telling you because
he thinks you will reveal it to me’. Jonathan says ‘my dad does nothing unless
he reveals it to me’. A type of Jesus in John’s gospel. David says ‘I’ll prove
it. Tomorrow is a feast day, I am supposed to sit at the kings table. Instead I
will hide in the field for 3 days [a type of Jesus in the grave] and when you
are eating with Saul, if he says ‘where’s David’ and gets irate, then the cat
is out of the bag’. So the plan is launched and Saul holds the dinner. On day
two he asks Jonathan ‘where’s old David today, I noticed he has been missing’.
Jonathan says ‘Oh, I let him go to his home town for a special family thing’.
Saul says ‘thou son of that rebellious women’! You think he went for the bait?
Sure enough Jonathan confirms to David that he was right and they make a
covenant to always respect and protect each other and their future kids. This
will come back to David down the road when he spares a relative of Jonathan.
Saul confronted Jonathan and said ‘why are you protecting David? As long as he
lives you will never be established’. Saul knew that Jonathan’s success was
dependent on David’s downfall. Jonathan was very noble, he didn’t see the
success of another Israelite as something to compete with. Leaders often fall
into this trap of comparing their ‘ministries’ with so and so. I feel the wrong
idea’s of local church breed this attitude. When we see ‘local church’ as the
various independent Christian businesses that are all trying to accomplish
tasks, then this breeds this competitive spirit. When we see ‘local church’ as
the entire family of believers in our city [Jonathans family mindset] then we
will overcome the spirit of competition.

(905)SAMUEL 21- David is fleeing
from Saul and he goes to the priest at Nob. The priest wonders what’s up. David
tells him he is on a special assignment from the king and he and his men need
food. The priest tells him the only food available is the consecrated bread that
is only for God and the priesthood. David convinces the priest to let them eat
and David asks ‘do you have any weapons here’. The priest says ‘I have the
sword you used to kill the giant’ David says ‘great, that will work just fine’.
Jesus used this story to describe himself and the disciples [Mark 2]. One day
Jesus and the disciples were going thru the grain fields and the disciples
picked the grain and ate it on the Sabbath. The Pharisees said ‘your disciples
are breaking Gods law by picking it on the Sabbath’. Now, to be honest they
were breaking the over extended ideas that the religious Pharisees came up with
thru their legalism. But Jesus still used this example as a defense. He says
‘have you not read what David and his men did? They ate the ceremonial
showbread that was not lawful, only the priests could eat it’. David and his
men are a symbol of Jesus and his men. While it is true that the bread was only
lawful for the priests, David is a king/priest who gets away with doing
‘priestly things’ because of his picture of Christ. Scripture says he put on an
ephod [priestly garment] which only priests could do. David functioned before
the open Ark
in Jerusalem.
He did things that other kings were punished for [Saul, Uzziah]. Jesus in
essence was saying to the Pharisees ‘I am the new priest/king from which all
future law and worship will be measured by. Me and my followers are not under
the law, the law serves us’! In Christ we are free from the guilt of the law,
we live above legalism and follow the master. David and his men were acting
like priests and kings contrary to the economy of their day. David was a type
of Jesus whose future priestly ministry would ‘out trump’ the law.

(906)SAMUEL 22- David escapes to
the cave at Adullam. As he is in hiding the scripture says ‘when his family and
friends heard where he was, they gathered to him’. Notice, David is beginning
to enter into a time of rule and authority. He was already anointed by Samuel,
but this is where the rubber meets the road. He already won some battles, but
that was still under Saul’s reign. Now he’s on his own. It’s not that easy!
Sort of like when the sparring partners turn pro and think ‘I can whip the
champ, I’ve done it already in the ring’. But then when they get in for real,
it’s another story. The prophet Gad tells David ‘don’t stay in the place of
hiding, get out and go to Judah’. Judah is a place of praise. When we are on
the run and are not sure what’s going to happen next, we have a tendency to ‘go
into hiding’. Now, sometimes it’s good to find a place of rest and hiding, but
these are not permanent positions! We eventually need to escape to a place of
praise. At this point David’s men are at around 400 strong, just the right
number to start a movement! I believe we all have the potential to be ‘church
planters’. If you have the tools to effectively speak into at least 400 people
on a consistent prophetic basis, then you can do it! Hey, start a blog, it’s
free! Now Saul finds out where David’s at and goes after him. He tells his men
‘why did none of you take my side, or feel sorry for me? Can David give you
stuff like I can?’ The brother was making campaign promises for heavens sake!
Notice how fear and paranoia were affecting Saul’s mind. He was having a pity
party. He is told by one of his men how the priests at Nob helped David, and
Saul calls for them and kills the entire company of priests. One son escapes,
Abiathar, and tells David what happened. David takes him under his wing. A few
things, when we are in the battle and are not sure what’s happening, we have a
tendency to draw back. Now, it’s fine to have a period of rest and renewal,
it’s just not supposed to be a permanent place! You also have to fight some
battles first. We live in a day where people want to ‘be retired’ at the age of
21! I like the commercial I saw a few years back, the parents are at their
son’s college graduation and they ask him ‘so son, what’s next’. The boy
compliments his dad on his sweater vest and says ‘I think I am just going to
retire and move back home’. Let me challenge you, get out of the place of fear
and anxiety and by Gods grace start a revolution. You leaders who are reeling
because of the battle, enter into Judah. Begin praising God again like in the
early days. I just finished a prayer time, I incorporate lots of thanksgiving
when praying for stuff. Do you have a regular time of thanking the Lord on a
consistent basis? When leaders feel overwhelmed and ‘in the cave’ it’s easy to
forget praise. I adjure you ‘get out of the cave and flee to Judah’!

(907)SAMUEL 23- David hears that
the Philistines are fighting against another town, he asks the Lord ‘Lord,
should I go and fight against them’? This is the beginning of David’s secret
campaign against the enemy. As he flees from Saul he also fights the enemy
secretly. Now the Lord says ‘go, fight them. I have given them to you’. Now his
men are scared, they tell David ‘geez, we are in distress now, in our so called
‘home land’ and you want us to go and fight on foreign ground’! One of the
characteristics of Gods heroes of the faith was a willingness to uproot and
travel ‘to a place that God will reveal to you’ often times you have no idea
where you are heading! You just start the journey in faith [Abraham- Hebrews
11] and learn as you go. Now David’s men caused David to ask the lord again
‘Lord, are you sure you want us to do this’? The Lord reaffirms the plan.
Sometimes we need confirmation for the mission. It’s alright to have second
thoughts, as long as you obey at the end! Remember Jesus teaching on the 2
sons? One said ‘yes father, I will obey’ [Jews] and didn’t. The other said ‘no,
I wont obey’ [gentiles] and later obeyed. David stumbled a little here in
doubting the first word, but the lord said ‘that’s alright son, I will give you
some reassurance.’ David goes and Saul finds out and traps him in some town.
David seeks the Lord and the Lord says ‘yes, Saul is coming and these people
will turn you in’. David flees and Saul surrounds him. Then Saul hears word
that the philistines have invaded their land and Saul leaves the area.
Sometimes we get into situations where we truly don’t have what it takes to
win. Even though David is God’s anointed man, yet he would not have been able
to withstand Saul at this early stage of his ‘ministry’. God realizes what we
can handle, sometimes we survive because the Lord divinely manipulates the
circumstances to our advantage! In this case David would have been thinking too
highly of himself if he thought ‘well, I am up here with the big boys now, I
can take him’. God might be using you in a special way, this doesn’t mean you
are advanced enough in everything to ‘go it with the big boys’. Wisdom allows
us to recognize whether or not we should take on all the tasks that we think
are needed. I enjoy studying from many other web sites and reading books and
hearing good teaching. But there are obvious times where I realize ‘geez, was
this brother really called to speak to such a large sector of the church at
this time in his growth’? It’s not demeaning, we just need to recognize that
all battles are not our battles. Sometimes the Lord says ‘David, you really
can’t handle this fight right now’ and he diverts a possible tragedy.

(908)SAMUEL 24- Saul heard that
David is at Engedi, he pursues him. When they get in the area Saul goes into a
random cave to ‘use the restroom’. Lo and behold, this just happens to be the
one cave that David and his men are hiding in! David’s men tell him ‘see, the
lord has delivered your enemy into your hand’. David secretly cuts a piece of
Saul’s robe off. As Saul leaves the cave David reveals himself and bows to the
ground and tells Saul ‘see my father, today I had the chance to kill you, but
instead I spared your life. Why are you listening to all the rumors that people
are saying about me?’ Notice, Saul was being fed gossip about David, and this
was affecting David! We need to overcome the reality that part of the cost of
ministry is people are going to lie about you and other people will believe it.
Yes, Jesus did say this was part of the cost ‘if they spoke falsely about me,
then they will about you. But when this happens rejoice! For this is also what
happened to the prophets’. Hey, if you want to run with the big boys, then this
is part of the price. Now David’s men also were affecting his thinking ‘Look,
now’s the chance to get your enemy. After all if God didn’t want you to get
even he would have never brought Saul into the cave’. Leaders have to be
worried about their own men’s advice as well! It’s hard to walk this fine line
at times, but true leadership listens to council and should err on the side of
mercy. This is a good rule of thumb. Saul tells David ‘forgive me son, this day
you have proven me wrong. Surely you will eventually become the king’. Saul
goes home and David goes back to the stronghold in the wilderness. David
realized that no matter how many times the lord would defend him against Saul,
that Saul would be a permanent obstacle. Why? It’s in mans nature to want to
retaliate against change. Especially change that involves a removal of
authority that was at one time used by God! Saul was not the original intent of
God [or David!] but once God’s people traveled down the road of kingship, God
did use this mode of authority. Now Saul did become addicted to power. Even
though leaders have good hearts and mean well, when there comes a change of
authority [like the movement of communal church where there no longer is the
role of ‘the pastor’] this challenges leadership at its core. Even if leaders
become convinced that a change is coming [like Saul recognizing David’s
destiny] still the sinful nature of man will come back and rears it ugly head.
David knew that Saul would be back on his trail soon.

(909)SAMUEL 25- THERE ARE MANY
SERVANTS THESE DAYS WHO BREAK AWAY FROM THEIR MASTER! We see the death of
Samuel and the story of David and Nabal. When David was on the run with his
small army, he had provided shelter for Nabal's men while in the fields. So
David figures it’s time to cash in on the goodwill that he showed to Nabal’s
men. He sends some servants to Nabal’s house to remind him of the favor that
was done, and to humbly ask ‘can you in return show us some favor and provide
us with some supply’? Nabal is considered a fool and replies ‘Who is this
David, another one of the many rebels of this day?’ and Nabal refuses to help.
Now David hears of the response and decides ‘I have had it! Let’s strap it on’.
On the way to wipe out Nabal the servants of Nabal tell his wife Abigail what
happened. They speak well of David and Abigail quickly puts together a supply
and sends it to David. She averts the disaster that was imminent. The next day
Nabal hears what happened and falls into a stroke type condition and dies
within a few days. David takes Abigail to be his wife. I sort of see in Nabal a
type of response to the new authority structures that God is raising up in the
kingdom. David of course is a type of Jesus, but we also see all leadership
types in David. In the present system of ‘local church’ there is a legitimate
challenge to the ‘old type pastoral model’. Now, some in the past have
challenged leadership out of rebellion. But there are very scriptural questions
to the development of the one man leadership model that prevails in today’s
idea of church. It is easy to mistake these challenges as ‘another rebellious
movement like the others of days gone by’. During the reformation of the 16th
century you also had this response. But there actually are real times of change
and upheaval that come from God. Nabal stuck David in a category of ‘another
one of those rebellious types’ but his judgment was way off. Nabal did not act
righteously in this challenge to Godly authority. He used ‘rebellion’ as a
false defense of his unwillingness to give David and his men their due. There
are good men who are seeing the legitimacy of the present challenges to the old
authority structures. But then there are others who are not even willing to
give a fair hearing to the ‘David’s’ and just assume all new ideas are acts of
rebellion. This can breed dangerous responses from both sides. Out of
frustration David, who was right in this case, almost committed an act of
retaliation that would have forever scarred his ministry. Nabal realized what a
foolish judgment he had made and lost his life over it. It would have been better
if the old guard recognized the legitimacy of the new guard and tried to hammer
out an amicable solution.

(910)SAMUEL 26- Saul pursues
David in the wilderness of Ziph. David hears that Saul is still on his trail,
and he tells his men ‘who wants to go down with me and see if we can spy on
Saul’? Abishai goes. They sneak into Saul’s camp and find the men sleeping,
they steel Saul’s spear and water supply. They go to the other side and yell
'what's up, why couldn’t a man like Abner protect Saul’? David reveals the
stolen stuff and Saul realizes that once again David had the chance to kill him
but let him go instead. Saul goes thru the whole ‘you are a better man than me’
thing. But the problem is no matter how many times God vindicates David, Saul
still goes after him! I think David would have preferred for Saul to really
learn the lesson instead of just making these worthless treaties. It’s like
signing these treaties with North
Korea on nuclear stuff. Then a few years go
by and they say ‘well, you caught us, we were cheating’ and then we go and sign
another one! David wasn’t putting much stock into Saul’s words. David also says
‘if God has told you to get me, than explain the reason, I will try and make
any fault right. But if it’s these gossiping people that have turned you into
my enemy, then let them be cursed’! Notice, it wasn’t just the fact that Saul
was pursuing David, it was the reality that David’s secret enemies were the
deceivers behind the whole thing. It’s like David has more respect for Saul,
because he at least is open and willing to confront him publicly. But the
troublemakers spend all their time poisoning the minds of others against you.
They are too scared to confront you themselves. Bunch of wimps! Once again Saul
recognizes Gods calling on David ‘you will do great things and prevail’. David
is Gods new order of leadership, Saul is stuck in the old school. It was
obvious that Saul was never going to transition and live peaceably with David
as the king. Saul had his ways and he basically was going to live out his days
functioning in the comfortable patterns of kingship that he was familiar with.
He also could see the writing on the wall. He saw that David had the lord
helping him, he was still humble enough to have glimpses of clarity. Being able
to see the future and what God was going to do. Saul just couldn’t get to a
point where he would peacefully accept the new king.

(911)SAMUEL 27- David realizes
that as long as he stays in the area, Saul will never change. He goes to
Achish, king of Gath,
and asks if he could stay there. David is given Ziklag and it becomes a
permanent possession for Israel.
David recognized that no matter how many efforts he made to show Saul that the
rumors about him were false, that this was going down a dead end trail.
Sometimes we need to simply ‘walk away’ from some stuff. It’s not like David
was hating Saul, he just recognized that all his efforts to try and get Saul to
approve of him were vain. Jesus told the Pharisees that they were seeking glory
and acceptance from men. He said those who seek to please men in this way could
not please God. He challenged their core reason for being ‘in the ministry’.
They wanted to be accepted and successful in the eyes of others. They did not
realize that their ideas of ministry strayed so far from the intent of God.
Jesus showed them that if their motivation was how others viewed them [they
loved to make long public prayers and show themselves to be spiritual] then God
was no longer in it. David quit trying to spend so much time and effort in
getting Saul to like him, he fled to Gath.
Now the king of Gath
is overjoyed to get such a talented member ‘on staff’. He believes David is now
with him as opposed to Israel.
We will see later that this trust he places in David blinds him from David's
real motives. The king’s men will advise against using David in a key battle
against Israel.
Leaders need to be careful in seeing the talents and gifts of people as simple
additions to their ministries. Because we live in a day where church and
ministry are so intertwined with corporate ideas, this leads to a dynamic of
pastors looking for ‘the best men I can find’. In actuality Jesus was seeking
the worst! Now, I realize Paul wanted good men to work with him and he rejected
those who would quit half way thru the task. But don’t view ministry thru the
lens of ‘great, David is now with me instead of Saul’! In Gods kingdom we are
all equal as brothers and sisters, we should not allow the talents and gifts of
others to cause us to favor them more than others. David stayed in the
philistine’s area for around a year and a half, sort of like Paul’s time at Corinth. The whole time
he is secretly fighting the enemies of Israel while Achish thinks he is
fighting against Israel.
Notice also that Ziklag became a permanent inheritance in Israel. A city
that David didn’t even fight for! Sometimes when we simply recognize the
transitions that God is leading us into, we yield and at the same time take
ground. I used to make decisions quickly, recently I had to make some ministry
decisions. Changes that I would have preferred not to have made. In the old
days I would have jumped thru these changes without really waiting on the Lord.
Or I would have persisted to not change and struggle along the sure path. But
now I try and wait and decide as a few days go by. If things look like the new
direction is the way to go, then I go with it. David left the territories of
his homeland for a while, he hooked up with Achish and during this seeming
distraction he possessed some territory peacefully. Sometimes we need to relax
during the distraction, and allow the lord to give us some easy land.

(912)SAMUEL 28- Saul prepares for
battle against Achish. The philistine king thinks David is with him. Saul seeks
God and doesn’t receive an answer by ‘dreams or prophets’. Saul expected to get
some kind of supernatural sign. Samuel is dead, but he released a prophetic mantle/anointing
into the community that showed the people that God can reveal himself in these
ways. Saul goes to a witch who works with familiar spirits, a thing forbidden
for Gods people! I have had friends ask me about reading the horoscope and
going to palm readers. God forbids his people to dabble in sorcery and
witchcraft, don’t do it! Saul manages to bring back Samuels spirit from the
grave and Samuel rebukes Saul and tells him he and his sons will ‘be with me
tomorrow’ [dead!]. Saul is reproved for two things. He didn’t fully obey God,
and he refused to carry out judgment/justice [when he was supposed to wipe out
Amalek]. I have seen many well meaning men in ministry. Good people who mean
well. Ministry can be a tough thing. When people feel intimidated they have a
tendency to not want to ‘execute judgment’. To only teach and preach good
things, never dealing with error or blatant heresy. God wanted Saul to obey AND
do judgment. Not judgment in a wrong way, but a willingness to see things that
are out of alignment and to deal with them. God wants truth, truth in love, but
truth. When Gods leaders get to a point of both obedience and justice, then we
will experience his presence in a strong way.

(913)SAMUEL 29- The philistines
go up against Israel.
David is with his men and Achish, king of Gath,
wants him to join the battle. The other kings say ‘what in the heck were you
thinking? You can’t bring David to fight against Saul. What better opportunity
than this will he ever have to reconcile with Saul? Surely he will kill us and
reconcile!’ Now, Achish disagrees and says ‘David’s been with me for a while
and he has been perfect’ actually not. David was secretly fighting the enemies
of Israel
all along. We have already seen David’s penchant for trying to vindicate
himself. How many times has he taken opportunity to say ‘see Saul, I had the
chance to get you but I didn’t’. Achish tells David ‘sorry David, I trust you
but the other kings don’t’ David makes this defense and says ‘why, what have I
done’ [he knows what he’s done! Achish doesn’t]. So David goes back and the
philistines proceed without him. I really think David was going to do what the
kings thought. He probably was going to try and reconcile with Saul one more
time. In this case the other kings had it right. Scripture says in the
multitude of counselors there is safety. Achish was so enamored with David’s
skill that he wasn’t thinking clearly. The council of others was right. Also
David would have interfered with this battle, this is the battle where Saul
will lose his life and David will take over as king. In essence David’s idea
was to eventually reconcile with Saul and Israel and have a wonderful time of
transition. God had other plans. The time for David to step up to the plate and
rule was now. Not a few more years of trying to ‘make things right’. Samuel and
David mourned for Saul and over did their loyalty to him. God told Samuel at
one point ‘quit crying about it son, I have rejected the man. Get over it for
heavens sake!’ David’s good intentions were well meaning, but God had another
plan. It wasn’t going to work as smoothly as David wished.

(914)SAMUEL 30- David returns
from the battle lines and finds out his town was sacked by the Amalekites. They
took everything and spared the lives of the women and children. David’s men see
the disaster and cry bitterly. They have a deacon board meeting and contemplate
stoning him to death. Things were bad, David encourages himself in the Lord. He
asks the Lord ‘should I go after them and try and recover our families’? The
Lord says ‘go, you will recover all’. David pursues and gets his people back
and kills the enemy. Four hundred young men escape. The same amount of men that
went with David, 200 stayed behind out of weakness. Why did the 400 Amalekites
flee? It’s possible that the Lord used these 400 survivors to spread the word
about David’s fierceness. This battle was pumped up, David showed no mercy!
After they return, the 400 man army of David despises the 200 who stayed behind
and say ‘we will give you your families, but no goods!’ They treated them as
lesser men. David would have none of it and says ‘we can’t withhold the things
the Lord has freely given us [freely you have received, freely give- Jesus] but
we will treat everyone alike’. I see the New Testament ministry of giving and
sharing as a community here. What happened in this chapter? David experienced a
tremendous possible loss this day. His men were at the lowest point of ‘the
ministry’. All seemed lost, they even feared the loss of their families. The
Lord does restore to David that which seemed gone for good, and David’s men
regroup. All this happens at the next to the last chapter of Samuel. In the
next chapter Saul dies and David becomes king. Everything seemed hopeless right
before the greatest victory of all! David was soon to enter into his prophetic
destiny in God. There is a theme in scripture that goes like this ‘right
before, and right after great victories there are great trials’ geez, that
means there are always trials! Yes, to a degree this is true. I also want you
to have a biblical perspective on what it means to ‘recover all’. The church
went thru a stage where we learned all the verses on ‘the enemy must repay 7
fold’ and other themes on ‘all the years the locust hath eaten will be
restored’. I like and have used these themes in my own life over the years to
claim victory. But I want you to see from an eternal perspective. The theme of
the New Testament is one of eternal rewards. Not so much focused on ‘what we
get here and now’ but on us having a ‘better reward in heaven’ [Hebrews]. Those
of you who have lost loved ones, finances [we just had a tremendous stock
market crash 10-08]. What if I were to tell you ‘you are not really much worse
off than those who haven’t lost all’. In a few short years all our loved ones
will be gone. We will have lost control over all of our wealth and riches. We
will all be gone [in the natural!]. But yet there awaits a real future
resurrection where we will all get our loved ones back. Where we will reap
eternal rewards for a life well lived. In the eternal perspective we do
‘recover all’, all isn’t lost! I want to encourage you today to believe God to
restore some things in the here and now. Yes, God can bless you and restore to
you wealth and health and family and many good things. And for those who have
lost some of these things permanently, God will restore to you real soon.

(915)SAMUEL 31- The Philistines
pursue Israel
and Saul and his sons are killed. Saul tells his armor bearer to kill him, the
armor bearer is afraid to do it. So Saul falls on his own sword. The enemy
takes Saul’s body and cuts off his head and they pin him and his sons up on a
wall for public humiliation. The inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead hear of it and
they get his body and give him a proper burial. David will soon become the
king. It’s kind of a sad way to end 1st Samuel. Saul and his sons
really die, Jonathan was killed. A true warrior with a pure heart. I think we
need to recognize the danger involved with the kingdom. There are times where
men and woman of God have come under attack and have fallen. A few years back
there were a few public scandals of believers who fell. Some just go away,
others try and get back into the ministry. Often times there is no real facing
up to the issues and an honest appraisal of what happened. I think many of
these believers would be helpful if they wrote a book or shared openly about
their struggles and difficulties. But the church has a tendency to cover up the
real dangers involved in the ministry. Also Saul commits suicide. There are few
suicides in scripture. We know Judas killed himself as well. If I remember
right there is a Psalm that speaks of the sword of your enemies entering into
them! A basic reality of a curse that comes upon those who fight believers
[Gods anointed ones] that they will die at their own hands [or you don’t have
to ‘get them’ yourself!]. Jesus taught us to not resist and take out vengeance
on our enemies. It seems as if in both of these cases [Saul and Judas] that they
fell victim to this judgment from God. How should we view this? Jesus and David
were Gods ‘anointed ones’. Can we say that those who challenge present
authority structures are rebelling against ‘Gods anointed’? This challenge has
been made many times over the years. The two great divisions of western
Christianity, the ‘Great Schism’ of 1054 [where the Eastern church- Orthodox,
split from the Western branch] and the 16th century Reformation.
Both had to do with believers resisting what they felt to be unscriptural
authority as seen in the doctrine of apostolic succession thru Peter to the
Popes. In both of these cases the ‘rebels’ were considered to be resisting
‘Gods authority’. I see it a little different. In Saul’s case he actually was
the old order authority who was resisting change to the ‘old way’. God was
bringing in a new anointed one thru David, and Saul was fighting the change.
And of course Judas was coming against Jesus, who would institute the most
radical change to mans approach to God that would ever come on the scene [in
essence Jesus was eliminating the old order priesthood and making all believers
priests!] I feel that these truths can apply to the current of change in our
day. As the people of God transition from an ‘old order’ idea of leadership, to
a more communal concept, both sides need to have respect and appreciation for
each other. The new order [organic ecclesia] needs to appreciate all that the
old order accomplished, and the old authority structures need to see the
writing on the wall.

2ND SAMUEL

(916)2ND SAMUEL 1-
David returns to Ziklag after recovering everything and a messenger from the
battle with Saul comes thru. David asks ‘what happened at the battle’? David
hears for the first time that Saul and Jonathan died. He asks for details and
the Amalekite tells the story of Saul’s death. This story is a little different
from the one previously recorded. In the previous chapters Saul is said to have
fallen on his sword. Here the Amalekite says ‘I saw Saul wounded and he asked
me to slay him. He was at the point of death so I killed him to take him out of
his misery’. Some feel this is a lie, that the brother was trying to make
himself look good by fudging. I think he might be telling the truth. After all
if he were trying to make himself look good, you probably wouldn’t say ‘I
killed a wounded guy’. Either way he tells the story. David responds in anger
‘why do you think your bragging about this is noble! You killed a leader who
God used mightily’ and David instructs his men to kill him. David finishes the
chapter with a song of praise and remembrance for Saul and Jonathan. He extols
their virtues in battle ‘swift like eagles, strong like lions’ and he invokes
Israel to mourn for the great loss. I see a noble thing here. Even though Saul
was rejected and his leadership style was being removed, yet the ‘new order’
[David] refused to despise the reality of the good times that were initiated
under Saul. He still showed respect for ‘the old order’. Many times in studying
church history you read of ‘the dark ages’. The centuries that are between the
institutional period of Christendom and the renaissance/reformation era. Often
times this period is looked at as a period of ‘no value’. But in reality there
were some spiritual things that came forth from the ‘old order’ that were of
great value. The desert fathers and other great Christian mystics. The reality
that the church became the sole arbiter in many international disputes of the
times. Yes there were some bad things, but good stuff too! David was smart
enough to begin his dynastic rule with crediting his former enemy with the
respect and honor he deserved.

(917)2nd SAMUEL 2-
David inquires of the Lord if he should go up into the cities of Judah. The Lord
tells him to go to Hebron. David becomes the king of Judah and rules from
Hebron for 7.5 years. From this point on the southern portion of Israel will be
referred to as ‘Judah’ and the northern tribes are called ‘Israel’. Abner, king
Saul’s commander, anoints another son of Saul as the king of the other tribes.
So you have Joab, David’s commander and Abner, the military leader of the
opposing king. Joab and Abner meet up on the field. Abner suggests a sort of
competition between the men. A fight ensues and good men die needlessly. Joab pursues
Abner and his men and Abner winds up killing a brother of Joab. He did not want
things to escalate to this degree! He tried to spare the brother, but in self
defense he killed him. Abner tells Joab 'stop chasing us, why should there be
more bloodshed between us, we are all brothers’? I see here the ‘innocent’ spirit of competition that got out
of hand. When God’s leaders begin comparing the skills of their people against
the skills of others, then people become pawns on a ministry chess board.
Competition is a deadly thing that exists in the church, the lines between
successful corporate ideas and Gods communal church have been blurred for a
long time, this causes us to be vulnerable to this type of thing. Joab and
Abner retreat and go home. David becomes king of Judah in Hebron. He will
eventually consolidate the kingdom under his rule [he will reign for 33 years
out of Jerusalem. A type of Jesus, who walked the holy land for 33 years until
the Cross] and the kingdom will split again under Solomon’s sons rule. The
divided history of the northern [Israel] and southern [Judah] tribes are seen
as a judgment from God for various reasons thru out Israel’s history. For the
most part the kings of Judah are better than the kings of Israel, but they will
both have good and bad kings over time. I see a picture of the historic
divisions of Christianity thru this history. Eventually you will have some who
feel they have a ‘more pure religion and priesthood’ under the Orthodox and
Protestant expressions of Christianity [I too hold to this to some degree] but
yet God will eventually rebuke Judah as being worse than her northern ‘sister’!
As we teach the Old Testament in the years to come I will try and trace these
developments as we get to them.

(918)2ND SAMUEL 3- Ishbosheth,
the son of Saul, king of Israel.
He accuses Abner of sleeping with one of his fathers concubines [second wife
type thing]. And Abner, the military leader who for the most part propped up
Ishbosheth as a puppet king for his own sake, gets irate and says ‘who do you
think I am that you accuse me like this? I am not some dog that you can
mistreat! I will now turn over the kingdom to David. If it weren’t for me you
wouldn’t even be a king!’ and Ishbosheth remains stunned and silent. What
happened here? When men join a ‘team’ [church-organization] out of jealousy and
competition, they see themselves as helping the leader as a by-product of there
own selfish motivations. We often see churches/organizations compete with one
another like professional ball teams ‘how many games did your team win this
season/ what was your average attendance this year?’ and stuff like that. When
ministry leaders/staff see their ‘church’ from this type of perspective, then
as soon as the leader offends you, you respond like Abner ‘how dare this guy
speak to me like that! Doesn’t he know if it weren’t for my support he wouldn’t
even be here!’ Now, I am not defending either side in this scenario, I feel for
the most part that both of these responses/attitudes are not found in the
churches of the New Testament. Because the churches in scripture were
communities of believers who lived in your city. They weren’t established along
these corporate ideas at all. Now Abner goes to David and tells him ‘I am now
with you [people can be fickle!] and will do my best to bring all Israel to
you’ David makes the deal and Joab, David’s military man says ‘what did you do?
Abner was here simply to spy on you, his motives are wrong!’ Joabs brother was
killed earlier by Abner himself, Joab was not willing to make peace with Abner.
After all there is only room for one military commander, and Joab is not about
to accept a demotion for this late comer to the party. Joab calls Abner back
and kills him. David hears what happened and washes his hands from the whole
matter. In this chapter we see how the motivations and selfish intentions of
people cause strife. I feel the whole scenario of ‘whose side are you on, which
‘local team’ [church] is your team?’ leads us into these types of positioning
and intrigue. In the New Testament you did not see Paul interacting this way
between the local churches [communities of believers] he was establishing. For
the most part he was teaching them to be faithful to the gospel and would only
exercise apostolic authority when things got out of hand. He would appeal to
his proof of who he was by saying ‘I am the one who brought you the gospel in
the first place, don’t listen to these false teachers who are drawing you away
from the truth’. But you did not see a dynamic of ‘are you supporting my
apostolic ministry or not? If you are not faithful to my ministry then I no
longer have time for you’. These limited ideas cause us to compete with one
another. Abner and Joab were men who wanted self advancement and recognition,
they aligned themselves with various leaders for their own purposes, this is
not the family mindset that Jesus will instill in his future leaders.

(920)2ND SAMUEL 4-
Ishbosheth hears of Abners death and falls into a state of fear and depression.
Even though Ishbosheth was the king, Abner was the power behind the scenes. He
is lying on his bed at noonday [a bad thing to do! Start your day early and
don’t sleep until the evening, this would eliminate most of the sleeping and
anti anxiety pills that are prescribed today]. Two of Ishbosheths men come in
and kill him while lying down on the job. They cut off his head and bring it to
David. They assumed David would rejoice over this act of vengeance. After all
don’t you feel good when God avenges you? Jesus taught us not to rejoice over
our enemy’s downfall. Scripture says God sees it and it displeases him. David
was not happy about the news and killed the two guilty messengers. In this
chapter we also see Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan who is lame. The story goes
that when he was 5 years old and the news of Saul and Jonathans death came
back, that the nurse fled and dropped him and he has been crippled ever since.
Some of us have had ‘crippling’ experiences that have permanently sidetracked
us. Now Jesus is the master at healing people who can’t walk. In John’s gospel
he asks the lame man ‘do you really want to be healed’ and Jesus heals him.
Sometimes we allow past experiences to permanently affect our future. Have you
‘been dropped’ by somebody who was supposed to take care of you? Have any of
your inner circle betrayed you while ‘lying on your bed at noonday’ [in a
position of intimidation and weakness]? I want to exhort you to let Jesus heal
you. Jesus told the blind guy to go ‘wash in the pool of Siloam’. Siloam means
‘sent’, you have been destined to be sent on a mission from God. ‘Get out of
the city and dwell in the fields, there I will deliver you from the enemy’
[bible!] I think some of us have been waiting for perfect conditions before we
act, God says get out of the bed while there’s still time. If not you are in
danger of ‘losing your head’ [losing the authority of a leader].

(921)2ND SAMUEL 5-
David consolidates the northern and southern tribes and they find unity thru
his reign [in Christ 2 are made one- Ephesians]. Israel says ‘we are part of
your bone and flesh’. Wow, what a picture of the New Testament church. Jesus
actually uses these exact words when speaking of himself after his resurrection
‘bone and flesh’. David takes the capital city of Jerusalem. He defeats the
Jebusites who are mocking his ability. Scripture says ‘David dwelt in the fort
and called it the city of David. And he built round about from the surrounding
areas and inward’. I have been quoting this for 15 years now. I saw it as a
personal word to me when moving to Corpus Christi. The principle is God will
give you a home base of operation, and from that base you establish and branch
out to the surrounding areas. Sort of an apostolic calling, Paul did this in
the book of Acts. David ‘perceived that the Lord had established him for the
sake of his people Israel’. David understood that the Lord gave him special
favor, not for his own benefit but for Gods people. Other scriptures speak of
God telling his people ‘remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord
commanded you. The Lord hath given you rest and this land. Your wives and
little ones and cattle shall remain in the land that the Lord gave you, but you
shall go before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help then
until the Lord establishes them like he did for you’ [The word to the children
of Israel who received the territories before crossing the Jordan]. God
establishes leaders [and saints!] so they can branch out and have the security
to move forward. All of us live in areas of the world where a mission field is
right outside our door. If people simply reorganized their lives around the
priorities of Jesus as seen in the gospels, we would have a great impact in
society. But instead we are inundated with this political class warfare message
that estranges us from the ones Jesus died for. God blessed David with wealth
and affluence. He was to use this great influence for ‘the least of these my
brethren’.

(922)2ND SAMUEL 6-
David attempts to retrieve the Ark
and bring it to the new capital city of Jerusalem.
On the way back one of the brothers tries to steady the ark as it was about to
fall. They were carrying it on a ‘new cart’ with oxen pulling it. This was not
the way the law prescribed carrying it! This was the formula that the
Philistines used earlier. So David’s man touches the Ark and is killed. They
leave it at another brother’s house for three months and the brother is
blessed, David goes and retrieves it. This chapter doesn’t say what changed,
but obviously David went back to the law and used the prescribed manner this
time around. As he enters Jerusalem with it there is this joyous picture of
everyone leaping and dancing and praising the Lord. Sort of like the triumphal
entry of Jesus [Gods ‘fleshly’ ark, who had all the fullness of God dwelling in
his physical body!] to Jerusalem
when the people shouted ‘Hosanna’. David places the ark in a tent/tabernacle
that he personally made for it. I wrote earlier how this was an open tent that
had no barriers between the ark and Gods people, a contrast between Moses
tabernacle where God and the people were separated [law versus grace type
thing]. David’s wife mocks him because he took off his royal robes and wore an
ephod [priestly garment] and danced and humbled himself before the Lord. David
says ‘I will even be more lowly than this’. His wife is barren for the rest of
her life as a judgment for mocking David. What ever happened to the ark? Well
let me give you some history. The ‘story’ [tradition] says that when the queen
of Ethiopia visits Solomon to see his wealth, that eventually he ‘marries’ her
and they have kids. The queen goes back to Ethiopia and supposedly takes the
ark from Solomon as a gift. The Ethiopian orthodox church claims to have it in
the main ‘church’ in Ethiopia. Because of this history all the Ethiopian
churches have replicas of the ark in their buildings as well. The Ethiopian
Orthodox Church is one of rich tradition. They are technically not considered
‘Catholic’ [western] or ‘Orthodox’ [eastern]. They are part of the church who
are sometimes referred to as Oriental. This referring to the historic churches
[not necessarily Oriental in geography] who never accepted the traditional
churches belief in certain expressions of the Trinity and the relationship
between Jesus and God. They stuck with the Arian view of Jesus deity and are
not considered ‘orthodox’ in this area. As the centuries developed and various
barbarians who were raiding the empire were converted, they also believed in a
Christianity that would be more aligned with this type of belief. Now, I know
Christians do not consider this to be correct doctrine, but I am simply sharing
the history with you. I am not siding with their belief! We really have no idea
where the ark is today, to be honest it doesn’t matter. We ‘see Jesus, who was
made a little lower than the angels for the purpose of dying, and he was raised
again for us’! [Hebrews]. We have the real McCoy!

(923)2ND SAMUEL 7- As
David’s house is becoming established, he says to himself ‘I live in this great
cedar house, and God is dwelling openly in this tent. I know what I will do; I
will build a house/building for God also’. Good intent, bad imagery! David
tells the plan to Nathan the prophet and Nathan says ‘go, do all that is in your
heart’ and everything seems fine. That very night the Lord appears to Nathan in
a vision and rebukes the whole scheme ‘Have I ever asked for someone to build
me a house? All the years of journeying with my people, don’t you think if I
wanted to dwell in some temple that I would have already done it!’. Basically
Nathan and David get reproved big time. Why? Up until now God ‘dwelt’ in 2
separate tabernacle/systems. The Mosaic one was a type of law and separation
between God and men. You had the classic veil separating God from the people.
The ‘holy of holies’ [back room] was a type of mans separation from God because
of mans sin. Now, after David retrieved the ark and brought it to Jerusalem. He set it up
under an open tent called ‘the tent/tabernacle of David’. From this vantage
point you had a beautiful picture of the future Messianic reign under Christ
[of whom David is a symbol] where the people would all have open access to God.
In essence ‘no more veil’. So even though David’s intentions are good, he is
messing up the image. God still confirms his calling on David and his
family/dynasty and we see one of those dual messianic prophecies that speak of
Solomon and Jesus at the same time. God says he will raise up a permanent
throne thru the loins of David and David will have a never ending rule. For
this to happen someone obviously needs to be born from the lineage of David who
will ‘have the power of an endless life’ [Hebrews]. Gee, I wonder who that
could be? God’s intricate plan of salvation that is contained in these Old
Testament books, written many years before Christ, couldn’t have been some made
up 1st century story. It would have been impossible to have
coordinated all the prophetic portions
of scripture that tie together in Christ. Even the original writers and readers
of Israel’s
history could not have seen the unfolding of prophetic events that were to be
fulfilled in Christ. We finish the chapter with David praising God and
recognizing in humility that God has spoken about his family and purpose for
ages to come. David sees that God is calling him to something greater than just
being a human king, having a brief political history. God has plans for David
even after David’s death! God spoke of David’s ongoing effect thru his seed
[kids] that would continue for many generations to come. God wants all of us to live with a kingdom
[not human!] legacy in mind. Paul the apostle built a gentile church that has
lasted for 2 thousand years, he was a man of humble means. He left behind no
edifice or bulky institution. But his ‘seed’ [spiritual kids] have outlasted
him for many generations to come. [see 1st Kings study, chapter 3-
entry 1050]

(924)2ND SAMUEL 8- As
David extends his rule he allows the defeated territories to maintain a level
of self governing. The military principle is defeat [demoralize] your enemy,
but don’t totally wipe him out. Either put a puppet king over them [Israel’s
enemies will do this to her down the road!] or allow the ruling leaders to stay
under tribute. Why do this? Some feel our country violated this principle in
the present war with Iraq [2008]. The pundits say ‘why did Bush dismantle the
Iraqi army, they should have simply allowed them to remain under U.S. rule’.
First, the talking heads would have never been satisfied. I could hear Chris
Matthews now ‘why in the world did Bush leave the army in place! Doesn’t he
know that they were infiltrated with terrorists?’ But David allowed the
defeated areas to exist under his rule. He wiped out some of their men, but not
all. I think the modern concept of ‘extending Christ’s rule’ thru church
planting can learn some lessons here. In the first century ‘church planting’
was the simple process of preaching the gospel to regions of people. Those who
believed were baptized and continued in the apostle’s doctrine and the ways of
Jesus. The first century ‘church planters’ were not trying to provide buildings
and weekly ‘preaching services’ and long term dependence upon the Pastoral
ministry. For the most part these new converts were to ‘self maintain’ under
the direction of more grounded brothers in the Lord [elders]. This allowed for
the ‘conquered territories’ [conquered by the sword of the Spirit, not the
sword of man!] to function relatively easily on their own with out a lot of
heavy financing and building programs and all sorts of stuff that the modern
concept of ‘church planting’ has brought along for the ride. David simply put
troops in these conquered cities [Jesus sent them out 2 by 2] and these areas
of people understood that they were servants to the king! They paid tribute [I
would associate this with the New Testament doctrine of giving as a community,
not the Levitical tithe] and the Davidic kingdom [gospel] could spread rapidly
in a short period of time. David had men working along side him; priests and
scribes and stuff. He did ‘justly’ and ruled with integrity. He exemplified the
character of a true leader, but did not back down from his God given authority.
God established him as a leader in Israel. The boy did his job!

(925)2ND SAMUEL 9-
David inquires if there are any sons of Jonathan still alive, he wants to keep
his oath to Jonathan that he would treat his offspring well when he became the
king. Sure enough they find out that Mephibosheth, the crippled son, is still
alive. David tells Ziba, former servant in Saul’s house, to become the servant
of Mephibosheth. Later on we see Ziba speak badly about Mephibosheth; he will
tell David that he was unfaithful to his rule. It’s possible that Ziba resented
this new position of servitude that David put on him and his house. We read
stories in the New Testament how the mercy Jesus shows to certain groups of
people [lame and crippled and poor] will create a dissension among the others.
David’s treatment of Mephibosheth is much like Jesus treatment of the down and
out. David honors this lame boy, he allows him to sit at the kings table [Jesus
in the parables calls people to ‘his dinner banquet’] and he outwardly,
publicly associated himself with the sick and disabled. Truly David is
fulfilling his role as a type of Christ. The jealousy of Ziba [down the road]
reminds me of the story of Haman in the book of Esther. Haman was this wicked
brother who hated the Jews. He particularly loathed this brother named
Mordecai. This Jew refused to bow down as Haman rode by. Haman was close to the
king [non Jew]. So Haman devises this plot to kill all the Jews and ultimately
Esther saves the day [thus the name of the book]. But at one point the king
asks Haman’s advice ‘what should I do for the man I respect and like so much’?
Haman thinks the king is talking about him, so of course he says ‘Well, have
him exalted to the highest position next to the king, let all the kings
servants bow down and respect him…and on and on’. Haman thinks ‘Now I’ll get
that rat Mordecai to bow!’ And the king says ‘sounds like a great idea, now go
and make all this happen for Mordecai’. This was not Haman's day. Jesus challenges
our hidden agendas. How do we respond when other ministries excel? Do we
secretly feel good when we hear about the failure of a ministry that never
honored us? Do we root for the church we attend and kind of have an attitude of
‘we are doing better than the other guys’. All these attitudes violate the
family mindset of the Body of Christ. When David, or Jesus or any other king
show special favor to another subject, our ‘eye shouldn’t be evil because the
king did what was his right to do with what was his’. David honored his former
vow to his best friend Jonathan, he kept his word.

(926)2ND SAMUEL 10-
The king of Ammon dies and David sends messengers to show due respect. The son,
who is now the new king, receives David’s men. But the princes of the land say
‘what in the heck were you thinking? Surely David has sent these men to spy on
us’. Why would the princes say this? Possibly because the king treated David
well when he was alive. He sent David materials and workers to help. Sometimes
people resent it when they feel others are getting the favor that they really
deserve. They poisoned the mind of the new king. Now he takes David’s men and
shaves half of their beards off and cuts their robes in half. An act of public
humiliation. David hears about it and the fight is on. Ammon requests help from
Syria and Syria says ‘sure, why not?’. I’ll tell you why not, because the
scripture says don’t get involved with fights and issues that don’t concern
you, that’s why! Well David confronts the armies and wins. Syria winds up
surrendering and making a treaty with Israel. What happened here? Once again we
see the poor decision making of a younger king. He took the advice of the other
princes who were speaking out of wrong motives and intentions. Solomon’s future
son will do the same and it will lead to another division in Israel. Paul
instructs Timothy [or Titus?] to not allow a novice to be an elder. Does this
mean young men can’t be spiritual leaders? Not necessarily. Timothy was fairly
young at the time of getting this instruction. But new believers [leaders] have
a tendency to grasp doctrine and ideas that might not be totally wrong, but
they have a tendency to emphasize them in a distorted way. How many times have
I heard teaching on the ‘importance of money’, or some other single issue. The
preacher will often defend his distortion by saying ‘look how many times this
subject is mentioned in scripture’ not realizing that this in itself does not
justify the wrong emphasis. For instance many of the times this subject is
mentioned it is in the context of warning
believers to not become side tracked with seeking wealth! I could start
a doctrine on the importance of ‘water’ or ‘bread’. Look how often water is
mentioned! We have it in Genesis and Revelation. Jesus speaks of the waters of
life. And I could go on and on. But the fact that this subject is found in so
many various ways, doesn't mean we should exalt it into an idol. So young [new]
believers do have a tendency to lift things out of proportion at times. The new
king acted foolishly and the Syrians came along for the ride. Wisdom would have
said ‘let the king of Ammon do what he thinks he should, we will sit this one
out’.

(927)2ND SAMUEL 11-
David sends Joab and his men out to war. He stays home and takes a walk on his
roof and spots Bathsheba. He sends a servant to contact her and he sleeps with
her. He finds out she’s pregnant and the gears in his mind start moving. He
calls her noble husband, Uriah, from the front lines of battle and pretends he
just called him to inquire about the battle. He sends him home, hoping he will
sleep with his wife, and then David will be off the hook. Sure enough Uriah is
so noble that he refuses to sleep in his house when his men are in the battle.
So David gives it a second shot and gets the brother drunk. He sends him home
again and Uriah refuses to sleep with Bathsheba. So David calls for Joab, the
lead commander of his army, and says ‘put Uriah in the front lines and draw
back and let him die’. Something interesting happens. Joab carries out the plan
but also allows some of David’s other men to die. Then he sends a messenger to
tell David ‘we were at the front lines, close to a wall, and some of our guys
were killed’. Joab tells the messenger ‘if David gets mad and says “what were
you thinking by getting close to the wall? This is a basic mistake that should
have never been made!”’ Joab says if David asks this, then say ‘Uriah is dead
too’. It’s possible that Joab stuck it to David here for making him partake in
his personal problems. Military men do not like carrying out personal political
vendettas. Either way the messenger goes and tells David and David feels he
covered up his sin. Of course we will soon find out the cover up didn’t work.
Bathsheba does move in with David and they make plans for the coming baby. A
few things; David was a great man, he followed God as a man ‘after Gods own
heart’. David was also human. Hebrews says ‘every high priest taken from among
men must make sacrifice for his own sin as well as the peoples’. I don’t want
to excuse sin, but I want you to see that all of us have ‘feet of clay’. Modern
ministry has a system where we present the best image of leadership to people.
We feel this is part of the role of leaders. The scriptures show you ‘the good,
the bad, and the ugly’. We just saw the ugly.

(928)2ND SAMUEL 12-
Nathan confronts David over his sin. He gives a parable about 2 men in a town,
one owned lots of flocks and sheep, the other owned one precious lamb. The man
with all the sheep had a visitor come to him in need. So instead of sacrificing
his own sheep, he went and took the precious ‘only lamb’ from his neighbor.
David is incensed over this injustice, he declares ‘This man will pay back what
he did and also die for this sin’! Nathan says ‘you are the man’. David
realizes he did this very thing with Bathsheba and Uriah. Notice how we have a
tendency to be enraged over the sin and faults of others, but we make room for
ourselves when we are guilty of the same things. Jesus confronted the religious
hypocrisy of his day when he showed the Pharisees that they were guilty of lust
and anger and jealousy, the same root causes of murder and adultery. They
wanted strict judgment on others who were guilty of the same sins that they
were guilty of. Also the fact that the man with one little lamb lost his
favorite, this speaks of the great sacrifice of giving up the ‘only begotten
Son of God’. Jesus sacrifice was great because the father gave his only Son.
Now David receives the reproof from the prophet and Gods judgment is pronounced
‘the sword will never leave your house. From within your own family treachery
shall arise. Your wives will be taken from you and publicly disgraced. The son
from Bathsheba will die’. Very strict judgment indeed, yet the Lord says ‘nevertheless,
I will spare your life’. This was something David did not leave room for in his
earlier judgment on the sheep stealer! David mourns and fasts for the child’s
life, but the child dies. David has another son with Bathsheba and his name is
Solomon. One of the greatest/wisest kings Israel will ever have. A few
things; in David’s earlier scenario he said the ‘sheep stealer’ should pay
restitution. He wanted the man to right the wrong. In David’s case he killed
the very man whom restitution should have been made to! In essence his sin was
so severe that it actually cut off part of his future reconciliation.
Unforgiveness towards others falls into this same category. God requires us to
forgive those who have wronged us. We often do every thing else under the sun
to get back on track, but we ‘eliminate’ the very person that stands in the way
of total reconciliation! That person is often times the offender. Also at the
end of the chapter David is told by Joab that he is on the verge of taking a
city and David should come and finish the job so Joab won’t get the credit.
David musters his forces and finishes the job. One of the hardest things to do
in ministry/service is to regroup and move forward again. David had some very
serious issues he had to deal with. The situation with Bathsheba was not going
away. He couldn’t completely resolve this issue. But he still needed to
function and carry out his responsibilities. Faithfulness means sticking it out
even thru your own personal failures. Completing the task to the best of your
ability. At one point they asked David ‘why were you grieving and fasting while
the boy was still alive, and after he died you ate and functioned again’? David
said ‘who knows, when the boy was alive there was a possibility that God would
change his mind and let the boy live. After he died there was nothing else I
could do’. Most of us would have been angry at God. David didn’t have all the
answers, he knew Nathan was an accurate prophet. The things Nathan said were
from the Lord. But David also was ‘from the Lord’. He too had a relationship
with God. He depended on this relationship to guide him thru stuff. Maybe God
would do something? David did not have all the answers. And when God didn’t do
what he wanted, he didn’t take it personal. He moved forward the best he could.
God showed tremendous mercy in allowing this sinful situation to produce a
future king. Solomon was born from this turmoil and he was a great man of God.
Look to the lord to bring forth wisdom from the failures in your life. The
‘first son’ might not have survived, but the second son just might be a
prodigy.

(929)2ND SAMUEL 13- In
this chapter David begins reaping the judgment on his household. Amnon, David’s
son, falls for Tamar. Tamar is the sister of Absalom, another son of David.
David had kids from various wives, so you had sons and sisters who were not
from the same mother. Amnon devises a scheme and sleeps with Tamar. Then he
rejects her. Absalom is incensed over this. David hears about it but doesn’t
deal with the problem. Two years go by and Absalom gets even. He tricks Amnon
and his other brothers to come to his territory. Then he kills Amnon. Word gets
back to David ‘all your sons have been slain by Amnon’. David thinks ‘surely,
this is my punishment’. He mourns and is shaken to the core. Now, the report
was false. It really wasn’t as bad as David thought. Leaders, don’t always
believe the initial report. The first intuition might be wrong. It’s difficult
for leaders to recognize that something needs to happen, and then to wait on
the Lord for clear directives. Leaders often want action, so they will respond
and act based on the initial report. It’s better to sleep on it for a few days.
David finds out that all the sons are not dead, just Amnon. Absalom flees to
another king and is gone for a few years. David is distraught over the loss of
one son and the reality that the other son is estranged from him. Could David
have prevented this whole scenario? Maybe not, we do know the Lord said a sword
would be in his family. A division and fighting would arise from within. But
David also failed in that when he heard of the situation he never dealt with
it. Sort of like Samuel and Eli. Eli let his boys run wild and they ruined Gods
house. Though the Lord ‘promised’ David would reap what he sowed earlier on,
yet the reaping was not as severe as he initially thought. Absalom could have
very well killed all the brothers, but the Lord only allowed a limited
judgment. Sometimes we mess up and make wrong choices, remember; God is for us.
He is on our side. All chastening and discipline are for our ultimate benefit.
What good what it have done for David to have been totally wiped out? God was
disciplining David and his family, but God was still on David’s side.

(930)2nd SAMUEL 14-
David is broken over the estrangement of his son. Joab realizes that the
kingdom can’t function to its full potential under this strain. But he knows he
can’t confront David himself. Why? Maybe it’s because of the nature of leaders.
It’s a very rare thing for one leader to confront another leader over an issue.
The natural response is to look for ways to justify ourselves. So instead Joab
finds a ‘wise woman’ and gets her to put on this act for the king. She tells
him this sob story about one of her sons killing the other one. She is a widow
and is left with only one son, but all the other relatives want justice! They
can’t forgive the only heir. Well David falls for this scenario again! He did
this with Nathan and Bathsheba. So he tells the woman ‘God forbid that someone
takes vengeance on the only son. Over my dead body…. on and on’. Now the woman
says ‘can I say one last thing’? Knowing David’s history of getting trumped at
the end of these things, I would have said ‘no maam, you’ve said enough already’.
But David says ‘go ahead’. She tells him ‘you’re the man!’ [Ouch! I wonder if
this woman was the wife of Nathan?:-)] So David realizes he’s been duped again.
The woman says ‘O, you are so wise and smart and….’ Gee, for someone who is so
swift, he sure falls for these stories a lot. David sends Joab to get Absalom
and Absalom returns to Jerusalem but the king avoids him for 2 years. Finally
he sees his son. All is not well, Absalom resents the fact that his father
called him home but never really made things right. Joab is glad that David
gave it a shot. And the nameless wise woman gives us a quote worth remembering
‘For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be
gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise
means [the Cross], that his banished [humanity] be not expelled from him
[reconciliation]’. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

(931)2ND SAMUEL 15-
Absalom sits daily at the city gate and when the people come to the king,
Absalom ‘steels their hearts’. He says ‘o, if I were the king I could do such a
good job. I am better than the one God appointed’. Avoid trying to gain peoples
acceptance by comparing yourself with others. God might use you to be an
example in some way, but this is a matter of grace. Paul said he excelled more
than the other apostles who were ‘in Christ’ before him, but nevertheless it
was Gods grace that caused this to happen. Absalom slowly wins the hearts of
the people and stages a takeover. Some men go willingly, others followed ‘out
of simplicity’. They were led astray like sheep. Remember, when dealing with
followers of groups who have ‘rebelled’ [classic cults] some have been raised
innocently with their beliefs. Try and honestly talk to them and treat them
courteously. God can give you an open door with them if you see them as people
who have value and worth. We see David as a type of Christ in this chapter. He
is forsaken by the city of Jerusalem
and loses his following. He even ascends the Mount of
Olives while weeping! He says ‘If God chooses to forsake me, so be
it. But if he brings me back again [resurrection!] and allows me to see the Ark in Jerusalem, then let his will be done’. Jesus
said ‘not my will, but thine be done’. The Father, who forsook his Son, did
delight in him and ‘brought him back again’ to see ‘the Ark in the city of Jerusalem’. Jesus saw the tabernacle of God
[Gods people, the dwelling of God] in ‘the city of God’ [the church is called the city of God that comes down from
God out of heaven] and he was restored to his former place of exaltation at the
fathers right-hand. David is reaping some stuff here. He makes some plans for a
future return to leadership, but recognizes when it’s time to retreat. Now, I
realize that God wants us to move forward and ‘take the kingdom by force’. But
Jesus also gave us a principle; he said ‘when one king is facing another king.
He sends out messengers to check out the opponent. If word comes back that you
are really out of your league in this battle, then try and come to terms of
peace if possible’. In essence there are times where taking a step back and
re-evaluating is a wise thing. David plants a few spies in Jerusalem who will report back to him every
now and then. David also finds out who his true friends are. Some follow him
instead of Absalom, even though Absalom is the ‘hot ticket item’ at the time.
These brothers who stick with you till the end are true friends, but they
aren’t always the most encouraging. Thomas [one of Jesus disciples] says at one
point ‘Lets go, we might as well follow him all the way to our deaths’. Thanks
for the willingness to follow Thomas, but you think you could change the
attitude a little! So David is doing the best with what he has, Gods people are
surviving, but they are being used as pawns on Absalom’s chess board. Absalom
looked good at the start, but he will not finish well.

(932)2ND SAMUEL 16- As
David flees Jerusalem,
Ziba, the servant that was under Mephibosheth joins with him. David asks ‘what
are you doing here? You should be home with your master’. Ziba says ‘as soon as
Mephibosheth heard about the take over, he said “I will stay in Israel and
become the new king, God will restore to me Saul’s throne”’. Now David believes
it and says ‘I now put you in charge of all the household of your former
master, it belongs to you’. Later on Mephibosheth will deny all of this. Its
possible Ziba made this up for his own benefit. Leaders, be careful of advice
from people with a personal agenda. They often make themselves look better than
others. Now as David flees another enemy comes out and curses and throws stones
at him along the way. This guy says ‘look at you now, you rebelled against the
old king [Saul] and now you are receiving the just reward’. Now David responds
with a Christ like attitude and says ‘let the guy curse me, I will not
retaliate. Maybe God will look on this persecution and reward me’. One of
David’s men wanted to ‘take his head off’. Gee, David has all types in his
leadership circle! Did this guy who was cursing David misread the whole
situation? Yes, but don’t forget we are reading this story from the real
perspective, some people living at the time of David and Saul saw this new king
[David] as a threat to the old ways. It’s only a few days after the 2008
presidential election. Barack Obama won. Though there were many reasons for and
against him, now that he won we ALL need to pray for him. But some of the
supporters of McCain sincerely saw this ‘new kind of person’ as a rebellious
threat to the ‘old order’. Sincere people who saw things from a different
angle. So David’s accuser sees the story from a wrong lens. David was being
judged by God, but not because he toppled the old order of King Saul. Back at
Jerusalem Absalom listens to the advice of Ahithophel and sleeps with his
fathers concubines. The advice was that when all Israel heard about it, they
would realize that this rebellion was a real rebellion and the people would
unite under his illegal rule. Scripture says Ahithophels counsel was like
‘hearing from God’ in those days. Leaders, be open to the counsel that is
coming forth from particular streams at certain times. It is not only important
for believers to ‘learn the bible’, but also to be able to discern the signs of
the times. Specific things God is saying and doing in our day. If you were
living in the 16th century the issue of the reformation was vital
for every one who was a believer. Whether you were Catholic or Protestant, you
needed to be up on the issues. Erasmus, the great Catholic scholar and humanist
[not ‘secular humanist’] wrote insightful criticisms against his own church,
yet remained within her fold. So matter what Christian tradition you align
yourself with, you need to be aware of the seasons and purposes of God for your
generation. In Absalom’s day, Ahithophel was the go to man.

(934)2ND SAMUEL 17-
Absalom is strengthening his position as the new king. Ahithophel, his chief
counselor, advises to strike while the irons hot. He tells Absalom ‘let me
gather a 12 thousand man army and quickly pursue David. I will come upon him
and his men while they are tired and fearful, then I will kill David only and
bring the people back to you’. Now, this advice was the best, but Absalom asks
for the advice of Hushai also. He was the secret spy that was really on David’s
side. He advises Absalom to wait and gather all the people and mount a broad
attack. God put it in the heart of Absalom to believe the bad advice [bad for
Absalom, good for David!]. So Ahithophel sees that his counsel is rejected, he
goes and hangs himself! Once again we see the ‘sword of David’s enemies enter
into their own heart’. Remember what we said earlier about this? So Hushai
sends word to David about the plan and David responds accordingly. Leaders,
understand the strategy of our mortal enemy [satan]. He wants to target you
when you and your people are weary and tired. He wants to take you down more
than any other thing. The bible teaches ‘smite the shepherd and the sheep will
be scattered’. Now this is a Messianic prophecy with a lot of meaning, but one
of the points is the lead ‘point man’ is usually the main target of the
opposing side. How can we mitigate this factor? Practice plural leadership as
much as possible. The new testament churches were not ‘run by a Pastor’ in the
way we do it today. So adjust your leadership paradigm and bring it more into
alignment with scripture. Also, spread ‘the wealth around’ [a recent key issue
with the newly elected president, Barack Obama]. If you can get the wisdom and
truth that God has communicated to you into the hands of many others, then you
have accomplished a lot. Paul told Timothy ‘the things that you have learned
and been assured of, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others
also’. This is true apostolic ministry. David will survive this rebellion
against his kingdom, but if Absalom listened to the best counsel David would
have been finished for sure.

(935)2ND SAMUEL 18-
David and his men regroup and mount a counter attack against Absalom. They
divide into 3 groups and go for it. David tells his men ‘take it easy on
Absalom’. Why? Understand that David is seeing the prophetic judgment upon his
family that was a result of his own sin. I wonder how many times David saw the
fulfillment of this former word [the sword will never depart from your house]
thru the seeming insignificant acts of Absalom along the way. David felt guilt
over this whole rebellion mounted by his son. Now the battle rages and David
and his men kill around 20 thousand troops of Absalom. Word gets back to Joab that
Absalom got his hair caught in some tree and is hanging in the tree. Joab says
‘why didn’t you kill him!’ the messenger says ‘God forbid that I should kill
the king’s son! I heard the strict orders from the king for no one to take his
life’. My King James Version says Joab responded with ‘I may not tarry thus
with thee’ in today’s terms ‘I can’t waste time listening to your reasoning’.
Joab goes and kills the king’s son. When I read thru this chapter earlier this
morning I saw 2 possible things here. First, Joab and his history with David
are one of Joab being a ‘bloody man’. He killed Abner against the king’s
wishes, and now Absalom. Why in the world did David not remove Joab from this
position earlier? One reason, Joab knew how to war. The boy was capable; he
knew how to get the job done. In ministry [or business] loyalty is important;
people need to be able to carry out the decisions of leadership. But loyalty in
and of itself doesn’t cut it, you need skills and abilities as well. You say
‘that’s not fair’ well if you don’t have the skills go get them for heavens
sake! Proverbs says knowledge is in the street corners calling out to the
simple and saying ‘come, receive of my learning’. The resources are there,
laziness prevents people from accessing them effectively. Now Joab also acted
responsibly to some degree. He realized that Absalom would be a permanent
threat to David’s rule, he killed him and saved many. Right after his death
Joab blows the trumpet and the battle is called off. 2 Messengers run to bring
the word to David. Ephesians says ‘blessed are the feet of those who bring the
gospel’ Gospel simply means ‘good news’. In the New Testament this good news
was the reality of Jesus death, burial and resurrection [1st
Corinthians 15] but in the Old Testament it was simply the news from ‘the
runner’. You could tell from the way the runner was running whether the news
was good or bad. How? Say if your wife took a lotto ticket that said ‘you one a
million dollars’ and said ‘I am going to ask the store clerk if it’s real’. As
you are waiting in the parking lot you see her coming out of the store. Do you
think you would be able to tell if the news was good or bad by watching the way
she approaches the car? So this was what the king looked for as the messengers
came running. If they bore good news their feet had this special pep to them.
News gets back to David and he is broken over the death of his son ‘O Absalom,
my son Absalom. Would God I had died in your place’ I always stop and meditate
this verse every time I read it thru my yearly reading thru the bible. This
contains the heart of the Father in redemption. A few more things; in this
chapter it said that Absalom raised up a monument/pillar after ‘his own name’.
Because he didn’t have any sons to carry on his legacy, he left ‘a thing’ that
would honor his name after he died. Absalom didn’t simply have a rebellion
issue against his father, he really wanted to build for himself a legacy. His
motivations were self serving. Jesus warns the leaders of his movement not to
approach ‘church and ministry’ with the same ‘gentile’ [worldly] concepts of
leadership. The world often succeeds thru the motivation of greed and lust and
power. It’s very easy to fall into the Absalom mindset and take it out on Gods
people when the ‘pillar’ [the thing of ministry] doesn’t ‘go up right’. Many
well meaning sincere men have been side tracked into seeking fame and
acceptance by seeing ministry thru the lens of ‘I want to leave some
institution that will bear witness to my name after I am gone’. Ministry,
according to Jesus, does not operate along these lines. In Absalom’s obsession
to become famous in the eyes of men, he went down a path that did leave a
memorial to his name for generations to come. We just read it.

(936)2ND SAMUEL 19-
David sends word to the elders of Judah ‘why are you guys so late in
receiving me back to Jerusalem
as your king? I am your own kin for heavens sake!’ After the death of the rogue
king Absalom, Israel came to her senses and began saying ‘you know, when David
was our king things weren’t all that bad, now that Absalom is dead, what are we
waiting for, lets call David back’. So David sends word back that he is
reuniting with the people again. He also makes some strategic moves; he tells
Amasa ‘when I get back, you get Joab’s job’ Ouch! David finally dealt with the
talented, yet self willed commander of his men. On the way back one of the
first guys that greets him is the same brother that cursed him and threw stones
at him earlier. David lived to see the day of Gods vindication. The brother
repents and David forgives him. Also the son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth, greets
David with great joy. The first thing David says is ‘why didn’t you leave with
me at the beginning?’ The earlier slander of Ziba stuck in David’s mind.
Mephibosheth swares that Ziba tricked him. David forgives him and says ‘enough!
You split the inheritance with Ziba’. Mephibosheth replies ‘Let him keep it, I
don’t need the material wealth. I am just glad to be with you again’. The
church does not see the reality of this test contained in scripture. There are
times where ‘David’ does offer opportunities of self advancement that are
simply a test to see what our motives are. In this case David rightfully gave
material stuff to Mephibosheth, it was the maturity and character of
Mephibosheth to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’. The scripture contains many
examples of Christ followers forsaking things for his cause. Just because the
bible ‘offers opportunities for wealth’ does not mean Gods best is for you to
‘go for the wealth’. Now that David’s back in Jerusalem, the divided tribes [Israel-10
tribes, and Judah] have a squabble. Israel says ‘Judah, who do
you think you are in being the first ones to escort the king back, he is our
king too’! And Judah
replies ‘yeah, but he is our blood kin, David is from our tribe. We hold a
‘special’ relationship with him because of natural heritage’. It’s funny, these
guys were on Absalom’s side a few days ago, now they are fighting over him! I
kinda see Jesus and natural Israel
in this story. The nation of Israel
became offended over the fact that they were ‘blood heirs’ of the Jewish
Messiah. They held to this ethnic pride that would be destroyed thru the Cross.
It offended the natural mind to see this ethnic figure [in the historic mind of
Judaism] to be accepted by ‘all the tribes’. They wanted him solely for their
own purposes. So here we see Judah and Israel fighting over David, he will
unite them both under his rule [Ephesians ‘the 2 are made one, Jew and Gentile,
and God hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us] and Jerusalem
will once again be called ‘the city of the great king’ [we are the ‘city that
comes down from God out of heaven’ the bride, the Lambs wife!]

(937)2ND SAMUEL 20-
Now David comes up against another short rebellion. Sheba, a Benjamite, blows the
trumpet and says ‘what part have we in David, every man for himself’. Sheba draws Israel away
from her king and Judah
remains loyal. David quickly tells his new commander, Amasa, ‘go and gather Judah together
and meet me in 3 days’. He takes longer than 3 days and David says ‘surely this
Sheba
is going to be trouble’ and he sends Joab out too. What’s going on here? First,
David removed Joab from the commander position and replaced him with Amasa. For
whatever reason Amasa is taking longer to gather Judah, David is reading into it
thru the paranoia of Sheba’s
rebellion. Was Amasa turning against him too? David then turns to his former
commander Joab and seems to be using him as the back up ‘go to man’. Leaders,
if you changed the staff for a reason, don’t keep going to the former guy for
advice. It only creates tension with the new team. If you think the new guy
isn’t working well, then give him a little time and if you have to then go and
make the change. But don’t simply give him a title and then undercut his job.
Now Joab goes out after Sheba
and finds Amasa and kills him. He then chases down Sheba into a city of Israel. Joab
comes against the city and a wise woman says ‘why are you trying to destroy us,
we are a special town in Israel’?
Joab says ‘we just want Sheba’.
Sure enough the woman says ‘wait a little bit’ and next thing you know Sheba’s head
comes over the wall. You don’t want to mess with these Israeli women! So Joab
gets his job back, thru violent means. David puts down this short rebellion.
And he has to regroup big time. Leadership means being able to function in the
midst of turmoil and inner strife and infighting. That’s part of the cost.
There is a verse that says ‘rule thou in the midst of your enemies’. God
doesn't tell us ‘I will remove all the problems so you can rule’. He tells us
‘lead right thru all the stuff’!

(938)2ND SAMUEL 21-
After David gains back his kingdom, there is a 3 year famine in the land. David
seeks the Lord about it. God tells him it is a result of the violence that Saul
committed against the innocent blood of the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were the
people who tricked Joshua [Joshua 9] into staying in the Promised Land. After
Joshua gave his word, they later found out that they were tricked. Well Saul
obviously went back on this promise of protection and came against them. When
ever there is a nation wide judgment, we need to see what the possible causes
might be. We just elected a new president of the U.S. [11-08]. While there are
obviously great historic realities to our new president being the first Black
man to attain this honor, yet we also need to seek God over the way we treat
the ‘innocent blood’ in our land. Barack Obama has already floated the idea
that he will overturn the executive decision of President Bush on our foreign
aid being used for abortions in other countries. To be honest it surprised me
that he even floated this idea so soon. This is a direct contradiction to the
statement he made at the forum at Rick Warrens church earlier in the year. He
said he would work to reduce abortion and that the goal of reducing them would
be part of his governing philosophy. He simply mislead us on this issue. Also
the Gibeonites were ‘illegal aliens’ in the sense that they were the only
people group allowed to remain in the Promised Land along with Israel. Our
country has had open borders for many years. True, we do have procedures to go
by if you want to come to our country. But we have previously promised
‘protection and safety’ to those who wanted to come. Much like the Gibeonites
we began to resent the aliens in our midst. We now treat them with less respect
and honor than was originally promised. We told the tired masses at one time
‘to come’ but now we want to build fences to keep them out. On both of these
issues our country needs to seek God, we are just beginning a few years of very
bad national economic times. For those who think this president [or any other!]
has the ability to turn this economic disaster around, you are only kidding
yourself. The next 4 years will not be good. We need to pray for our president
and honor him, but in reality our economy is very bad. Also in this chapter we
see David and his men fight the sons of Goliath, the giant who David defeated
earlier in his life. Old enemies are resurfacing. David is in a battle with one
of them and is almost killed. To the rescue comes Abishai, the brother of Joab.
These were the brothers who gave David ‘hell’ all thru out his reign. Self willed,
violent. This time David was grateful for the violent ability of these
brothers. Sometimes we have to put up with people in our cities, areas. We
might not always agree with their style. But when things get rough, we can
count on them to get the job done. David and his men wipe out the rest of the
giants sons and they tell David ‘you can’t war with us any more, it’s too
dangerous’. David recognizes it’s time for a personal transition, he likes
being in the battle front, but he is risking too much to think that time has
not affected his ability. God leads us thru various stages of growth and
development thru out our lives, the bible says ‘there is a time and season for
everything’. We need to be able to follow the course as God directs. David was
a true warrior, he did not want to adjust his procedure. Wisdom allows us to do
what’s best for the overall community and not to please ourselves.

(939)2ND SAMUEL 22-
David exalts the Lord and mentions many themes that are found thru out
scripture. He also says ‘the Lord has rewarded me according to the cleanness of
my hands… he has recompensed me according to my righteousness’. Though David is
renown for his sin with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband, yet we must
see that David’s repentance was real. Ultimately David turned from his sin and
God did bless him. We don’t want people to get the impression that repentance
did not matter, in David’s case it made all the difference in the world. David
also says ‘the Lord is merciful to those who are merciful…and hard with those
who are hard’ Jesus says this in Matthew 5. David says ‘God took me and placed
me in a large place’. One of the most frustrating things is to be operating
from the wrong paradigm. Too often we leave the impression with young Pastors
that their ‘job’ is to preach to 30 people a week for 30 years, marry them,
bury them, perform the job of the ‘hired clergyman’ and this is what it means to
be faithful. While I recognize that many well meaning men are functioning out
of this mind set, yet God puts in people [all of his people, not just ‘full
time ministers’!] a ‘large place’ to function out of. Now, when I say ‘large
place’ don’t think building, think ‘the area, groups of people that I will
influence thru out my life’. Scripture says God took David from ‘following the
sheep’ [small pastoral mindset] to being king over the nation. God simply gave
David great influence and stature for the sake of his people. Jesus said ‘you
have been faithful over a little, I will now give you authority over 10
cities’. Are you frustrated because you are supposed to be ‘over 10 cities’ and
are still dealing with ‘the little’? Be faithful to the day of small things
right now, promotion comes from God alone. ‘You have made me the head of the
heathen…strangers shall serve me. As soon as they hear me they will submit’.
These are Messianic themes found elsewhere in scripture ‘ask of me and I will
give you the heathen for your inheritance, the ends of the earth for your
possession’. Jesus became the ‘head of the heathen’ he is Lord over the gentile
nations, John calls this ‘the other flock’ in his gospel. God gave both David
and Jesus authority for the benefit of people. What kind of people? The lost,
down and out. Those who society rejected. God gives us authority for the ‘sake
of the heathen’. Don’t see your ‘ministry’ as a gift to the ‘upper class’ only,
spend some time ‘with the heathen’.

(940)2ND SAMUEL 23-
David recounts his life and the mighty men who were with him thru the ups and
downs. He says ‘God raised me up on high, the anointed of God. He spake his
words thru me’ Jesus was raised up ‘on high’ he was/is Gods anointed one
[Messiah] and he spoke only the words that the Father gave him. Now David has
some valiant men to mention. Some fought the enemy against all odds. One was in
a lentil field and the rest of the people fled. This brother stood his ground
and won! This characteristic is important for leaders; there are times where
you must stand, even if the rest of your people are afraid! If you start
running, then forget it, there isn’t a ‘snowball’s chance in Hades’ that the
job will get finished. Also David was in the cave Adullam, and he longed for
the water at Bethlehem.
His 3 mighty men heard him and they secretly snuck out and broke thru the
Philistines front line and got the water for David! A valiant deed. Then they
bring it to David and he pours it on the ground! He says ‘God forbid that I
should drink the water that you risked your lives for’. I don’t know about you
guys, but if I were one of the mighty men, my next valiant act would be ‘watch
me make the king drink water off the ground’. One of the brothers killed a lion
in the snow. I grew up in New Jersey,
when it’s freezing out its hard to carry out tasks. You really don’t want to
fight battles and ‘slay lions’ in difficult environments. The mighty men were
able to function well, even in harsh conditions. The rest of the chapter is
simply the naming of all the others. A few things; God raises up leaders and
‘kings’ at various times in history [Luther, Calvin, Graham, etc.] these men
make their mark on history with the help of many other valiant men. In David’s
case one of the men saved him from sure death in an earlier fight with the
giant’s sons. The point is we are not in this thing to make a name for
ourselves or to think ‘I could do a better job than David’ [Absalom] and go and
start our own ‘kingdom’. God places key people in key places at certain points
in time. It is vital for all the ‘actors’ [those who act/function!] to be
courageous, take risks as God ordains, and fulfill the mission to the best of
your ability. There are times where leaders WILL HAVE TO LEAD! That means you
sought God, you heard what he said, and you followed thru on it. Many sincere
men try all sorts of ‘new ideas’ in an attempt to get something off the ground.
A year goes by and they have a new idea their working on. What happened?
Ultimately you have to lead. You have to follow thru on the directives that God
gave you. The problem isn’t with the plan [most of the times] but it’s with the
faithfulness to follow thru with the mission. David’s men had the character to
stick things out when others fled. Sure, those who flee will be back to check
things out every now and then. Don’t despise them, but you know who can be
trusted with the next mission. These are the noble warriors who acted valiantly
in the face of great odds. These are the ‘go to men’ if you will.

(941)2ND SAMUEL 24-
David numbers the people. Joab and his men tell David not to do it. Why? Well
to be honest we really don’t know for sure, but let me give you my spin on it.
The nation of Israel
were very religious and sticklers for specific things. You see this development
years later with the religious Pharisees, a tendency to focus in on specific
instructions and these ideas becoming obsessive in their minds. All Israel knew the
original promise that God made to Abraham. God told him that his ‘seed would be
like the stars for multitude and the sand by the shore’ [Genesis 15] included
in this famous promise were the words ‘go, see if you can count them’? It was
understood that God was saying to Abraham ‘go, if you want to test me, try and
count them’ [the stars]. It’s possible that the counting of the people was
considered a taboo for this reason. Now David does count them and his
‘seer/prophet’ Gad tells him ‘you messed up, you have 3 choices of judgment
that will come on you’. David picks the 3 day judgment under Gods hand and
70,000 Israelites die. The census David took showed that Israel had 800
thousand people, Judah 500 thousand [1.3 million total] without counting the
women and children! So you can multiply this number by at least 3 to figure the
actual size of the nation. God stops the judgment short and David builds an
altar at the place where he saw the destroying angel. David also pleads with
the Lord ‘why kill the people, let the judgment be on me and my family
instead’. David shows the heart of Moses here. Also David had a ‘seer/prophet’
that was part of his ‘ministry team’. In the prophetic churches it is common to
have real prophetic people [not flakes!] who are stable in the word, and also
give good advice to the leadership. There are real life prophets/seers who
function in the church and can play a key role in the future of the church. We
end Samuel with David overseeing a large kingdom. The people were the prophetic
fulfillment of Gods purpose in the earth at that time. The letter of Peter says
we are Gods holy nation today. The Father promised the Son that he would give
him ‘the heathen for his inheritance and the ends of the earth for his
possession’. Just like David, the anointed king/priest of Israel, Jesus
sits at the right hand of the Father and sees the great multitude of people on
the earth [and in heaven] that are the fulfillment of the promise of God to
him. We are living proof of the faithfulness of God to his Son.

Me at the homeless mission

About Me

I am a Fire Fighter living in Corpus Christi Texas [retired after 25 years] Married with 4 girls. And lots of cats![my daughter said it sounds like I have 4 wives. I am married and have 4 daughters]
johnchiarello@hotmail.com